Boer War cut coin “badges”

[MarkMcM]

Hello All,

To date, I’ve found two Boer War period cut silver coin “badges”. The one I own is a South African coin with cut “CMR” detail (assume Canadian Mounted Rifles since this was found in Vancouver), and another Half Crown with cut “BH” detail (Brabant’s Horse?) - this one I found online by chance. Both have lugs affixed in a similar manner. Would like to know if anyone has run across similar examples with lugs fashioned in this manner?

[Roy]

Stunning badges Mark,

Appreciate you sharing these mate.

I wonder if they were PoW made (?), seems like the sort of thing that might be produced when one had a lot of time on their hands.

Great pieces though Mark, whatever the history.

Cheerio,
Roy

[MarkMcM]

Originally Posted by Roy

Stunning badges Mark,

Appreciate you sharing these mate.

I wonder if they were PoW made (?), seems like the sort of thing that might be produced when one had a lot of time on their hands.

Great pieces though Mark, whatever the history.

Cheerio,
Roy

Hi Roy,

Thanks, and unfortunately I don’t own the BH example. I found the images of that one whilst searching the interweb for slouch hat badges and found it unique enough to save in my image folder. It’s quite clever how the crown part of the coin design was incorporated to sit just above the “BH”! The POW angle is interesting and is definitely worth pursuing...

[mike_vee]

Boer War POW Coins :

http://southafricancoins.net/coin/


https://www.tokencoins.com/zar08.htm

.

[MarkMcM]

Originally Posted by mike_vee

Boer War POW Coins :

http://southafricancoins.net/coin/


https://www.tokencoins.com/zar08.htm

.

Interesting links Mike. Several with brooch pins but none with affixed lugs. Does anyone have the ZAR trench art book?

[Alex Rice]

Very nice items, never seen those before. In my opinion, I would think them unlikely to be PoW items. There weren't many colonial PoW's and also not for long as far as I am aware. I doubt if the boer PoWs would have made badges of the units of the enemy as souvenirs. Many of the boer prisoners were shipped away so unlikely to have had much interaction after capture. I would think maybe made by bored troopers? Very interesting either way.
Cheers,
Alex

[kingsley]

I have a few examples of Boer coin 'jewellery' and somewhere in my files I have an image of an Australian 'regimental' half crown which I will post here when I find it. I think it is "VMR" (Victorian Mounted Rifles). I have often wondered how official they might have been, buit it is doubtful if they were ever worn as a hat badge.

[High Wood]

Here is one of mine.

https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/fo...ictureid=93485



https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/fo...ictureid=93486

[kingsley]

Here are the two examples from my files, Scottish Horse and Victorian Bushmens' Contingent.

[MarkMcM]

Originally Posted by kingsley

Here are the two examples from my files, Scottish Horse and Victorian Bushmens' Contingent.

Interesting…. the VBC is clearly “lugged”, which really begs the question of context. If not a cap/hat badge, then what?

[MarkMcM]

Originally Posted by Alex Rice

Very nice items, never seen those before. In my opinion, I would think them unlikely to be PoW items. There weren't many colonial PoW's and also not for long as far as I am aware. I doubt if the boer PoWs would have made badges of the units of the enemy as souvenirs. Many of the boer prisoners were shipped away so unlikely to have had much interaction after capture. I would think maybe made by bored troopers? Very interesting either way.
Cheers,
Alex

Speaking to a jeweler friend, I’m told that it requires a fair amount of skill and access to resources to produce one of these cut coins, so that may make the PoW theory less likely. However, an accomplished gunsmith could certainly pull it off. So maybe the company armorer was the culprit?

[Rob Miller]

Originally Posted by kingsley

Here are the two examples from my files, Scottish Horse and Victorian Bushmens' Contingent.

I bought a button based sweetheart recently with a similar mount to the first one of these two, but roughly 1 Shilling size.

Rob

[grenadierguardsman]

Those coins are superb.
Andy

[kingsley]

I downloaded the VBC coin picture a long time ago, but I seem to remember that the owner (whoever he was) thought it was an unofficial hat badge. I did not think at the time that he had any provenance and that it was just his theory, but the many examples in this thread at least establish that it was a definite 'regimental' design.

[dumdum]

Interesting to read these posts. I've seen a few and the most common is Paul Kruger with the addition of a scratched on pipe and optional ladies' "poke bonnet".

I wonder if there wasn't the same "industry" that produced the carved deep bowl pipes that surface from time to time. The really well done efforts must have been done on a commercial basis.

Presumably the coins would have had a circulating legal tender status so it's hard to fathom why the locals would have been abusing their own currency.

Way back I showed pictures and examples of these to a retired jeweller. His comment was that they seemed to have a certain commonality in style and he proclaimed them to be, mostly, the work of people with some skill but not necessarily professionals.

Having just read a book on NZ troops in the Anglo-Boer War they quote them sending back home various souvenirs such as bullets and coins as well as leaves and feathers.

One wonders if the coins had been "worked" before being sent?