EXTREMELY RARE 1874 South Africa ZAR BURGERSPOND Start Price USD 16,000.00 Current Price USD 16,000.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, July 03, 2008 End Time Sunday, July 13, 2008 Location Leicester See more about 'EXTREMELY RARE 1874 South Africa ZAR BURGERSPOND' Description An EXTREMELY RARE 1874 South African, Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek, "Fine Beard" Gold Burgerspond.  Only 837 of these coin were minted in both varieties.  The coin has VF-XF detail, and was once in jewelry, but the milling appears to be intact.  We estimate that the current value of a slabbed A.U. example would probably be $40,000 to $50,000 these days.   This famous and extremely rare coin was the first coin to have been struck for any entity that later became part of South Africa.  It was struck at the Heaton Mint, Birmingham, England, even though it lacks the "H" mintmark. There are two types of the Burgerspond — a coarse beard type and a fine beard type.  Only 695 fine beard and 142 coarse beard Burger Ponds were minted. The Burgerspond is named after the President of the South African Republic, Thomas Francois Burger.  Some members of the South African Republic's Volksraad, or Parliament, credited Burgers with the introduction of the Republic's first coinage.  When the first issue (the fine beard variety) was presented to members of the Volksraad they scorned the coins that carried Burger's image.  The symbolism represented foolish pride to a very religious community.  Such was the outcry no further attempt was made to mint more of these coins with the smaller second strike (coarse beard) being stopped because of the ill feeling the "coins" created among the Boers. The Burgerspond was rarely, if ever, used as coinage and was commonly used as jewellery, the reason so few unmounted pieces exist today. Registered / Fully Insured Postage $16 Worldwide.   Place a Bid!