The "Perfect" Forgery - The Story of the Fake Paul Kruger Pond of 1900

The "Perfect" Forgery - The Story of the Fake Paul Kruger Pond of 1900 

In the late 1960s, coin collectors in South Africa became aware of a Kruger Pond of 1900 that was brilliantly struck of which specimens were sold at a bargain price by a Pretoria dealer. The coin became known as the Van Niekerk Pond, due to the swindler who marketed them as part of the "Kruger Millions" that he located in Europe. 

But our story actually goes back to the days of the Anglo Boer War when the Berlin Mint tried to supply the Pretoria Mint with dies for 1900 Ponde. It reads like a spy story with secret agents of both the British and Boer governments involved, a break-in on a ship in the Lourenco Marques harbor in Mozambique, secret dealings with the French Mint in Paris, and much more. 

The saga ended 75 years later with a few court cases in Pretoria after Van Niekerk was accused of obtaining Kruger Pond dies illegally from government institutions in Pretoria and having forgeries struck in Milan in Italy. 

This 20-page booklet is sold for the benefit of the Western Cape Numismatic Society.