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1 Penny - Victoria Griqua Town Pattern
| Issuer | Griquatown |
|---|---|
| Year | 1890 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Wolfgang Lauer |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A dove of peace with wings fully displayed stands at centre, its head turned to the right and holding an olive branch in its beak, symbolising peace and the aspirations of the Griqua community. Three five-pointed stars are arranged in a horizontal row below the bird, flanking either side. The two-word legend GRIQUA TOWN is distributed around the periphery, with GRIQUA arching across the upper field and TOWN curving along the lower field, all within a dentilated border. |
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| Reverse lettering | * GRIQUA * TOWN |
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| Additional information |
Griquatown — a settlement established by the London Missionary Society for the Griqua people in what is now the Northern Cape — never operated a mint and had no monetary authority of its own. This piece is a privately produced pattern, almost certainly commissioned in Britain, testing the concept of a local coinage that was never adopted. The Griqua had by 1890 been largely dispossessed of their land following the annexation of Griqualand West by the Cape Colony in 1880, which makes the political premise of this issue essentially fictional by the date it was struck.