Briefly. Around 100 years ago this would have been money for workers (and perhaps other) to be spent at the provisions store at a mine in/around Natal. The reverse is blank. There are quite a number of other such pieces for other mine locations in South Africa.

    I have three varieties of the above token. Two in blue (each with differing legend sizes) and one in black. The material is apparently celluloid - I believe the pieces to be from the early 20th century. Pieces exist from other cities/regions of South Africa.

    Quite similar, (through size, design, material etc..) regionally issued tokens were issued in Great Britian around this time and for many years afterwards, for a great number of towns/cities/regions. It would seem safe to assume that the South African types had a similar use to the British ones. A typical use would have been for local goverment employees to be given tokens by the token issuer, i.e. their employer. The employee would then get effectively free travel on the public transport, to a limit determined by the value of the tokens they had.

    The website of the South African Mint Company includes details of "Coin World" which is the mint's museum and retail outlet.

    My souvenir token above from "Coin World" is dated 2001. Likely there other other designs for other dates. "Coin World" opened in 1996 and has developed into quite a major tourist attraction in South Africa. For more info on the subject on this site see... S.A. Mint Company info .

    Another piece that could be similarly classed as a “souvenir” coin is the above piece from an attraction near to Johannesburg. “Gold Reef City” is summed-up by the company’s advertising in the following line “Step back in time with Gold Reef City Casino and Theme Park to experience a unique destination with a difference!”. The 1993 dated 1 Penny shown above is just one of many such similar pieces. I have seen a 1986 dated 1 Penny advertised for sale and have occasionally seen a full set of denominations offered on Ebay, comprising representations of all 11 pre-decimal South African denominations (1/4 Penny through to 1 Pound). Each of the denominations shows a different animal on the reverse and have sizes following those of the real coins. All pieces have a portrait of Paul Kruger on the obverse. Though the attraction is still open, I suspect that these pieces are no longer issued but when issue ceased I do not know.

    The “Gold Reef City” series described above remind me of two British souvenir series which also follow designs of pre-decimal coins. A 1987 dated series from the Ironbridge Gorge Museum and a 1991 series from Pentref Llechwedd Village. There is a common obverse depicting the place of issue for each series. All pieces I have seen, Farthing through to 3 Pence, have a reverse featuring a near copy of the reverse of a coin of that denomination from around 100 years ago (except for the modern date and a “H” mint mark being on this side). I believe that higher denominations exist, but they are uncommon. These tokens would be purchased by visitors, at a fixed rate of old Pennies to the modern Pound. The tokens could then be spent during the visit using old prices. Of course, very few visitors would retain the higher denomination pieces as keep-sakes. I would imagine that the Gold Reef City pieces were purchased and used in a similar way.

    In Great Britain “souvenir” coins are often seen in the form of elongated coins. There are tens of different designs for the U.K. (hundreds, if not thousands in the U.S.A.). I wrote something about elongates from a British perspective for this site (and a book) several years ago - see... Elongates of the British Isles .

    A few months ago I came across http://www.souvenircoin.com/  it is the site of the company in South Africa that sells and markets elongated coins and related machines.

    More recently I came across  http://www.janet.longpenny.com/SouthAfrica.htm  a page on the site of an elongate collector. This was the first such site I had seen that included South African elongates amongst those of various other parts of the world. It seems that at least some of the South Africa pieces are made on foreign coins - perhaps there are more laws to keep to in South Africa than in most other countries. I imagine there will be another country in Africa with an elongate machine or two - but I have yet to find any evidence of this.

New page at April 2003.
Caesars Token and "Coin World" pieces added June 2003.
Some Older Tokens of South Africa - added at November 2004.
Some Souvenir Pieces add at November 2004 - based on "Coin World" image/info that was previously on another page.