Rhodesia: Opening of the Railway Line from Mafeking to Bulawayo
|
|
|
|
|
Form:
|
Upright rounded rectangle (almost oval) with attached loop for ring. Uniface.
|
|
By:
|
? |
|
Date:
|
1897 |
|
Ref:
|
Laidlaw: 0751;
|
|
Variations:
|
| Size | Metal | Mass | Value |
|---|
| 25.3 mm x 32.5 mm | Gilded Silver | 11.5 gm | $60 | | 25.3 x 34.7 mm (inc loop) | Gilded & Enameled Silver | 11.2 gm | $80 |
|
|
Edge:
|
Plain.
|
|
Obverse:
|
Against a cross-hatched ornamented background, the coat of arms of the British South Africa Company with motto on a ribbon below: “JUSTICE FREEDOM COMMERCE”. Legend on a raised band above: “BULAWAYO”, floral decorations left and right, and below: “4TH NOVR. 1897".
|
|
Reverse:
|
Blank.
|
|
Notes:
|
The railway line from Cape Town reached Vryburg, north of Kimberley, during 1890 and was extended to Mafeking in 1894.
The final link of more than 500 miles north to Bulawayo, in the new territory of Rhodesia, was completed on 19 October 1897. Towards the end track was being laid at a rate of more than a mile a day at the urging of Cecil Rhodes who financed the project through the British South Africa Company. The construction engineer was Harold Pauling. The line was officially opened on 4th November 1897 by Sir Alfred Milner, High Commissioner of the Cape Colony. Eight hundred guests arrived for the ceremony on four trains. The date was chosen to mark the 4th anniversary of the occupation of Matabeleland.
The length of the line from Cape Town to Bulawayo was 1,360 miles (2,176km).
|
