1893 Halfpond XF45 PCGS The Scarcest ordinary ZAR coin

1893 Half pond XF45 Very very Rare Coin

In the words of the late Dr  Frank Mitchell "The first Single-Shafted Half Pounds issued bear the year 1893 ,and of these there were really very few so that to-day they are the rarest of all the normal Kruger Coins" extract pg 77 C.L.Engelbrecht Money In South Africa.

NGC figures; 5 coins graded Spectrum vF(1),XF40(1), XF45(2), AU50 (1)

PCGS figures;19 coins graded Spectrum VF (6),XF40 (2),XF45(6),AU50 (3), AU53 (1),AU55 (1) Lookup code 560714

Total 24 graded 6 better,8 the same and 10 worse.than XF45.

One sugestion is that very many of these coins ended up in Jewelry as ex mount examples are relatively common.

Prices fetched even for cleaned specimens are high. 2006 Heritage Auctions fetched $3300 for a frankly 'Polished' specimen.

You may remember that an AU53 specimen was reported to have been sold in South Africa for R300,000 last year.

Taking to-day's PCGS & NGC grading figures, 32 Burgersponden (8 plus 24) have been graded, 101 Veldponden (13 plus 88)

This coin in graded form is appreciably scarcer than a BP and Four times scarcer than a Veldpond

It is often the gap in the big ZAR collection