Rhodesia: Thomas Baines Centenary: (b) Livingstone's Zambesi Expedition (1858-1859)

Form:

Circular

By:

Trevor Wood / Matthews Manufacturing Co.

Date:

1975

Ref:

AM2: 558-561; Laidlaw: 0736b;

Variations:

Size	Metal	Mass	Value
36.2 mm	Silver	30.3 gm	$50 (individual)
36.2 mm	Gilded Bronze	27.8 gm	$20 (individual)

Edge:

Plain. Stamped with the issue number. This silver medal stamped: "3". This bronze medal stamped: "621".

Obverse:

Baines wearing hat, half-right. Signed: "TW" on right. Legend: "THOMAS BAINES".

Reverse:

Starboard broadside view of a paddle steamer on river, right. Below: "THE MA-ROBERT". Legend: "1858 LIVINGSTONE'S ZAMBEZI EXPEDITION 1859". From a drawing by Baines of the paddle steamer which was unsuccessful in its attempt to navigate up the Zambezi river.

Notes:

The medals come packed in a special folder containing, in addition, South African and Rhodesian first-day cover postage stamps and a booklet on Baines by Louis W. Bolze. The folder is inside a cardboard box lettered: "THOMAS BAINES CENTENARY 1875-1975".

An accompanying amended certificate states that the medals were struck both in Rhodesia and South Africa as follows:
In Rhodesia (available through Books of Rhodesia):
Sterling silver 100 sets numbered 1 -100
Bronze 700 sets numbered 351-1050
In South Africa (available through Africana Book Society):
Sterling silver 250 sets numbered 101-350
Gold (18ct) 50 sets numbered 1-50

Thomas Baines (1820 – 1875) was an English artist and explorer of colonial southern Africa and Australia. He first arrived in South Africa in 1842. In 1858 he accompanied David Livingstone along the Zambezi, and was one of the first white men to view Victoria Falls. In 1869 he led one of the first gold prospecting expeditions to Mashonaland in what later became Rhodesia. In 1870 he was granted a concession to explore for gold between the Gweru and Hunyani rivers by Lobengula, leader of the Matabele nation. Thomas Baines died in Durban in 1875.

Trevor wood was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1930. He came to Rhodesia in 1955 and established himself as a sculptor and medal designer.