The history of ZARs coins dates all the way back to 1874, with the first coin — the Burgerspond — being the first indigenous coins produced for the Republic of South Africa, under the presidential run of Thomas François Burgers. 

The first two coins of the “Big 5” ZAR coins include “The Pond: The Course Beard” and “The Pond: The Fine Beard” which were slight design shifts that were first noticed by A.J. Ellis, a Numismatist of Johannesburg in 1944.  

In 1891, Paul Kruger was up for the presidential elections. He had an idea to win the election - he introduced coins that had his image on them which he thought would make people perceive him as a serious candidate for the presidency. When he set out to do this, he had no idea that this would nearly cost him his election, as the coins came back from the Imperial German (Kaizer) Mint in Berlin with two errors that deeply offended the boers.

Error 1) the designer Otto Schultz, placed his initials “OS” on the coin, which in Afrikaans translates to “Ox”.

Error 2) the wrong depiction of the Voortrekker wagon. The actual wagon has a single hitching shaft at the front, with larger rear wheels. However, Schultz depicted a double shaft and equally sized wheels. This did not please the boers.

The corrected ponde were struck without any changes from 1893 – 1900. Known as “1892 single shaft” Kruger pond. The single shaft pond, which is the correct version, is more sought after and therefore more valuable than the double shaft. Hardly any of these original coins exist today, having been lost or damaged over time.  

In 1892, the first half pond was minted. Both the single shaft and double shaft were also coined in the 1892 Half Pond, however the number produced is unrecorded. But where the single-shaft variety is rare in the 1892 Pond, in the case of the Half Pond it is unique. It has been recorded that a total of 10 double-shaft half ponds have been graded. 

Also unknown is the quantity of half-pond coins struck in 1893, while only 28 have been graded. These coins are extremely rare and very expensive. The owners of these sets, like with all numismatic rarities, have been in the fortunate position to set their own prices when they have wished to sell.

These coins were yet another creation of the Second Anglo-Boer War. They were used as money due to the lack of regular coinage at the time. Shortly after the beginning of the war in 1899, British Imperial troops under Lord Roberts invaded the Transvaal and occupied Pretoria. The State Attorney collected all of the minted coins and un-minted blanks and took them by rail to President Kruger at Middleburg.

As there was a shortage of coins which occurred at the beginning of the war, coins known as “blanks”, which had previously been removed from the ZAR mint, were placed into circulation. These blanks were coins at very early stages of coin manufacture. Prior to any coins being minted, blanks are produced, prepared and then stamped. Many of these blanks had a raised rim and others had no rim at all. The next process for the coins with rims would have been their stamping by the mint dies, creating a complete coin.

Some of these blanks had scraper marks of a circular type on their surfaces. These were made by employees of the mint. On finding that a blank was the incorrect weight they scraped gold from the surface until the weight was correct. There were occasions when this was done on both sides of the blank. These blanks are rare and therefore have turned out to be exceedingly valuable collectable coins in today's times.