The famous / infamous Strachan & Co tokens , lies , fights , name calling and just general nastiness ... (Updated 13/01/2023)
A Set consists of 2/- , 1/- , 6d , 3d
There are 4 Tokens per set and 4 Sets with the MH Mountain home tokens being the rarest.(Letters MH on them) Followed by the 1/~ from Set 3.
HOW DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE ? Look at the ampersand & notice the 2/- Shilling that there is a straight ampersand and a curl ampersand.
Set 3 and 4 look very similar but look at the ampersand , 3 straight , 4 curl ...
There are other differences eg: set 3 got larger "2" set 4 is smaller etc ...difficult to recognise if you do not have to compare or see them often.
Set 3 on the 6d is a plain 6 and on set 4 got a blob. Etc.
NOT the end of it though, there is more a "Z" token and others whit weight differences etc etc ...
Here is a little snippet of text from Clan Strachan ....
"The Strachan & Co tokens were minted in Europe, and first issued in 1874 (Date is debatable) The most sought after and best researched South African trade token. There are only 60 full sets known to exist in the world. "
"Over 20,000 coins were counted in 1980 when research on these tokens was first undertaken in Umzimkulu by Scott Balson."
Now 20 000 + coins does not make these tokens particularly rare, they are out there ... again excluding the Mountain Home set and 1/~ set three which are more scares.
At this moment in time people are trying to sell these on Bid or Buy + Ebay for between R.700 and R.1000 (not MH) which means they are pricing Strachen coins to be as valuable as the more rare James Cole, Durban Club, Cornwall Canteen tokens ...
WRONG and WHY ???
Before I continue, you will occasionally see scraped Strachan tokens, these will have a hole trough them and amazingly people are selling these at the same price as non scrapped ones ...
"yeah I know , right .... you are saying really ? WHY ? "
What is wrong with the Strachan Tokens ? Nothing regarding the tokens themselves, just the surrounding story, it's a bit suspect ....
You can go and read about the Strachan Tokens but a WARNING before you do ...not everything on this site is true as you will read a bit later ... The story told by SCOTT BALSON (do not believe everything you read)
So Mr Balson tell the world that the Strachan company Tokens were the first indigenous trade coins, he is so convincing that even famous and well respected numismatics buy into his story ... till some numismatics start to question what he says ... a darker side comes out and things from here get nasty. Insults all over the internet and in general just plain nastiness and yes from both sides.
It does make for interesting reading really, an enormous scam that I think harmed Tokens, their value and the South African collector tremendously. In general our values for our tokens are now with this whole thing 10 years behind in value to what they should be, I'm saying that if a token sold for R.200 ten years ago it should have been at least be worth R.300 ± 10 years later …NOT the case in fact we're still selling at ten years ago prices ...
Enter Pierre_Henri, on BoB, Bid or Buy. Mr Henri questions the fact that the Tokens were first vs Griqua Coinage, go read here
Snippet :
This Griqua coinage debate made me rethink the whole issue of the Strachan & Co tokens that are punted as South Africa's first indigenous coinage that circulated over a wide geographical area, being introduced in 1874.
I have two questions regarding the Strachan tokens ?
1)Where and when were they first struck (minted)?
2)Is there any proof that they were introduced in 1874 and circulated in that year? (The same year that our first gold coin, the Burgerspond was struck)
Regarding the first question, I found the following extracts from the tokencoins website.
Despite vigorous research in trying to establish an exact date for the release of the S & Co coins, these efforts proved fruitless. The most direct evidence was a comment that was made by Douglas Strachan, Donald Strachan's son (who said that) the first minting was done in England, and it is thought to have been prior to 1880
The same source says : The Strachan & Co tokens were minted in Europe and put in general use as currency from about 1875 And As noted by Milner Snell in his book, very few of Strachan and Co's letter books remain - and none before 1906 - if they had we would be able to present earlier direct references to their coinage
Now back to my two questions...
Where & when were they first struck (minted)?
Answer: Nobody knows where they were struck, some say England and some say Europe, but it could have been in Cape Town or wherever.
Nobody also knows when they were struck-some say 1874 and some say 1875 and others speculate that it was probably before 1880.
There are simply no official records telling us when and where they were struck.
Is there any proof that they were introduced in 1874 and circulated in that year (the same year that our first gold coin, the Burgerspond, was struck)?
Answer:
No, there is simply no record of this - only speculation that it could have been 1874, or 1875 or at least before 1880. There are simply no contemporary records telling us when they were introduced and started to circulate.
So the next time anyone writes that the Strachan & Co tokens are South Africa's first circulating indigenous currency and circulated in 1874, one can respond by asking Says who are there any contemporary & official records that prove this?
Seems like the mysterious Strachan and Co tokens of the 1800s (nobody disputes them being issued after 1906) could have been minted in Germany.
Look at this quote from Scott Balsons own website :
"... according to, Strachan did promise Kok that he would investigate alternative ways of getting around the problems associated with the Griqua's isolation from banks and the resulting dependence on the highly unsatisfactory system of bartering goods. Strachan's answer was to issue his own coinage in 1874 which then became the currency of the people in the Nomansland region for over 50 years. This ambitious project took a few years to complete, with four brass coins being minted in Germany"
Am I right in reading that this so-called ambitious coin project took a few years to complete after 1874?
Really? - How many years after ? 5? 10? 20 years?
Are there any records when and where they were minted in Germany?
The same website also tells us that the tokens were actually minted in England.
Now it tells us that they were minted in Germany.
Am I alone in seeing how we have all have been deceived by the so-called facts about the Strachan and Co tokens since way back when?
TAKE A BREAK
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Something else ......
Here is a letter to Scot Balson from renowed Numusmatic Michael Laidlaw... "Hello Scott,
I am a member of the Pietermaritzburg coin club, and I have known about you and your marvellous website for some time. Before I retired I was professor of computer science at the University and worked one floor below Clive Graham.
I though that you would like to know that a large number of Strachan tokens came up for auction here recently (May 2005). They were in the family of Guy Scott who I understand was an accountant in Umzimkhulu and a director of Strachan & Co. I was the successful bidder. There were 302 tokens (+ 1 Larkan) in the lot, as tabulated below, plus a signed copy of “Kence” and a printed booklet entitled “Old Umzimkulu”.
My guess is that these tokens are *not a “new” find but were given by Ken Strachan to Guy Scott. In support of this is the fact that on the copy of Kence is written, “With the compliments of the Directors of Strachan & Co. Ltd, October 1978”. Also 3 type 4 sets were in presentation cases (made from old SAM boxes with the recesses reworked to accommodate the 4 tokens).
All the best,
Michael Laidlaw"
I believe this might be the what Mr Laidlaw was refering to....
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and we continue ...
The absolute rubbish being published on the internet regarding the Strachan & Co tokens are mind-boggling. The mystery date of 1874 is now published on many a website, while the truth is that we have not ONE SINGLE contemporary report proving that they were issued in the 1800s at all ...
Look at this nonsense …
The best known example, the trade tokens of Strachan and Company, were issued in South Africa in 1874 and are today recognised as that country's first widely circulating indigenous currency.
S Africa's first widely circulating indigenous coins, the famous S&Co issued in 1874 by the Strachan brothers of Umzimkhulu.
The Strachan and Co trade tokens were issued by a trading store, Strachan and Company in East Griqualand from 1874 onwards
The first two the S&Co, and extremely rare S&Co MH set were dated 1874 and used as the region's currency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_South_African_pound
(Yep, that nonsense comes from Wikipedia that the tokens were actually dated 1874!)
Really, Wikipedia says that! (in defence of Wikipedia, It is written by private people, Pierre Henri could if he felt like it go and correct it himself ... author of this page)
The first two of the S&Co, and extremely rare S&Co MH set were dated 1874
It is just beyond anyone’s imagination how these blatant lies have infiltrated our once proudly numismatic history.
How many fronts do we have to cover to stop this rot?
Read more here , and just when you think you know ...here is an Unholy Strachan coin ( yes, I know ! An UN holed token not holy) Believe it or not, but in a recently discovered hoard, an un-holed 3d were actually found (and two hand drilled rather than machine-punched issues)
The UNMASKING and Morgan's (MTB) book .... MORE Reading here .... HERE ...
The Conclusion ...one hell of a scam that some numismatics still believe and worst of all now trying to sell tokens for much more than they are worth ...
Below , a self confession Mr Scott Balson ...
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