Coins
About Andrew Cusack
Writer, web designer, etc.; born in New York; educated in Argentina, Scotland, and South Africa; now based in London. read more
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Articles of Note: 6 January 2024
■ I had the great privilege of studying French Algeria under the knowledgeable and congenial Dr Stephen Tyre of St Andrews University and the country continues to exude an interest. The Algerian detective novelist Yasmina Khadra — nom de plume of the army officer Mohammed Moulessehoul — has attracted notice in Angledom since being translated from the Gallic into our vulgar tongue.
Recently the columnist Matthew Parris visited Algeria for leisurely purposes and reports on the experience.
■ While you’re at the Spectator, of course by now you should have already studied my lament for the excessive strength of widely available beers — provoked by the news that Sam Smith’s Brewery have increased the alcohol level of their trusty and reliable Alpine Lager.
■ This week Elijah Granet of the Legal Style Blog shared this numismatic gem. It makes one realise quite how dull our coin designs are these days. I don’t see why we shouldn’t have an updated version of this for our currently reigning Charles.
■ Meanwhile Chris Akers of Investors Chronicle and the Financial Times has gone on retreat to Scotland’s ancient abbey of Pluscarden and written up the experience for the FT. As he settled into the monastic rhythm, Chris found he was unwinding more than he ever has on any tropical beach.
Pluscarden is Britain’s only monastic community now in its original abbey, the building having been preserved — albeit greatly damaged until it was restarted in 1948. The older Buckfast is also on its original site but was entirely razed by 1800 or so and rebuilt from the 1900s onwards. (Pluscarden also has an excellent monastic shop.)
■ An entirely different and more disappointing form of retreat in Scottish religion is the (Presbyterian) state kirk’s decision to withdraw from tons of their smaller churches. St Monans is one of the mediæval gems of Fife, overlooking the harbour of the eponymous saint’s village since the fourteenth century, and built on the site of an earlier place of worship.
Cllr Sean Dillon pointed out the East Neuk is to lose six churches — some of which have been in the Kirk’s hands since they were confiscated at the Reformation, including St Monans.
John Lloyd, also of the FT, reported on this last summer and spoke to my old church history tutor, the Rev Dr Ian C. Bradley. More on the closures in the Courier and Fife Today.
What a dream it would be for a charitable trust to buy St Monans and to restore it to its appearance circa 1500 or so, available as a place of worship and as a living demonstration of Scotland’s rich and polychromatic culture that was so tragically destroyed in the sixteenth century. You could open with a Carver Mass conducted by Sir James MacMillan.
■ And finally, on the last day of MMXXIII, the architect Conor Lynch reports in from Connemara with this scene of idyllic bliss:
Dolosse
dolos, pl. dolosse
Visitors to the seaside and frequenters of port cities will be familiar with those oddly shaped concrete forms which are dropped together to form breakwaters and prevent erosion.
It turns out that they have a name of Afrikaans origin: dolos (plural dolosse).
‘Dolos’ is believed to be a contraction of ‘dollen os’, the name for the children’s toy of knucklebones or jacks. This particular shape was invented by Aubrey Kruger and Eric Mowbray Merrifield to rebuild the revetments of East London’s artificial harbours following the great storm of 1963.
Kruger fashioned a smaller version of the shape to show his idea to Merrifield, and legend has it that Kruger’s father visited them on the quayside and asked Wat speel julle met die dolos? (‘What are you playing at with the jack?’) The name stuck.
In 2016 the South African Mint released a two-rand ‘crown’ coin depicting the dolos as a tribute to this example of South African ingenuity.
From Realm to Republic
South Africa’s transition from a monarchy to a republic coincided with a change of currency. Out went the old South African pound (with its shillings and pence) and in came the decimilised rand.
Luckily the republican government had the good taste to commission George Kruger Gray, responsible for the country’s most beautiful coinage, to design the new coins. HM the Queen was replaced by old Jan van Riebeeck, and the country’s arms were deprived of their crown.
The New Zealand Half-Crown
In the 1930s, New Zealand devalued its pound in relation to sterling and a whole new series of coinage and bank notes were introduced under the authority of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. The government commissioned the accomplished English numismatic artist George Kruger Gray to design the dominion’s new coinage, which included this very handsome half-crown. It’s a splendid convergence between Maori and European design, two cooperating strains of New Zealand’s national culture. The country’s shield of arms is topped by a Tudor crown and flanked by indigenous motifs. (more…)
Classical South Africa
I’m rather fond of the little coin logo of the Classical Association of South Africa, which appears on the front page of the society’s scholarly journal, Acta Classica: Verhandelinge van die Klassieke Vereniging van Suid-Afrika.
CASA also publishes, in cooperation with Stellenbosch University, Akroterion: Tydskrif vir die Klassieke in Suid-Afrika.
The study of our ancient civilisation is alive & well in South Africa!
Some New York Coinage
IT MAY INTEREST our readers to know that before the Feddle Gummint started throwing its weight around, the Great State of New York was in the habit of minting its own coinage. One of the most famous of the coins produced during the era is the 1787 ‘Nova Eborac’, so called for its abbreviation of Nova Eboracum; that’s ‘New York’ in the language of our ancient Roman forbearers.
All decent people being lovers of monarchy, the New Yorkers of yore found themselves in a slight predicament. Their king had granted them independence four years earlier, but George III (the forgetful man!) neglected to indicate who would be king once he relinquished the sacred office. Every country must have a king — if not, then whose face would go on coins and such? “Not to worry,” saith the designer of the Nova Eborac. “We’ll stick a king on and just not say who he is.” And so they did, as seen on the obverse of the above Nova Eborac. The reverse depicts a figure who looks suspiciously like the Britannia on the old British coins. Old habits die hard. Around this Britannia-esque figure is the inscription VIRT. ET LIB for Virtus et Libertas – Virtue and Liberty.
One Thomas Machin, however, clearly thought this was a bit silly and so decided to simply put the Governor on the coins he produced. His coins (seen on the right) show Gov. George Clinton on the obverse and a depiction of the arms of the Empire State on the reverse (they also grace the banner of this webpage). A chap named Ephraim Brasher went a little further and depicted neither the anony-king nor the governor but instead put depictions of heraldic arms on both side of the coin; New York on the obverse and the United States on the reverse. These coins are known as ‘Brasher’s Dubloons’ and the front and back can be seen below.
Previously: New York Currency
New York Currency
When New York magazine speculated on the prospects of an independent New York they postulated Woody Allen gracing a “1 York” note with Rudolph Guliani on the “20 York” note. In Caledonia they’re used to dealing with many different varieties of banknotes. In Scotland alone there are three different institutions authorised ot print currency: the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Bank of Scotland, and the Clydesdale Bank. Northern Ireland, meanwhile, has four: the Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, Northern Bank, and First Trust Bank. England and Wales, on the other hand, have but the Bank of England to issue legal tender, that institution having been granted a monopoly so to do in 1921. [More on British banknotes]
Nonetheless, this got me to thinking who and what I would put on New York bank notes if we had them. First of all, none of this “York” business; dollars they are and dollars they would remain in my land of fancy. Anyhow, here’s what I generally came up with: (more…)
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