Introduction:

On this web site you will discover that the Strachan & Co coins, for fifty years, played a major role in the evolving commercial development of a vast region in and around Nomansland including the southern part of Natal. It is quite easy to demonstrate that their impact actually went much further than that of just a traditional trading store token and that they were the accepted as currency for the entire Nomansland region and as far north as Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal. As Douglas Strachan, son of Donald Strachan later recorded, "These tokens were accepted everywhere including church collections..."

Image right: Donald Strachan and sons

In the attached scan of a letterbook, certified a true copy by Ken Strachan, the company confirms in 1907 that its tokens could be accepted by a third party, F L Thring in Ixopo in payment of their accounts. This was some thirty years after the Standard bank had opened in Kokstad and banks had opened in Ixopo. The letter also note the wide circulation of the coins throughout the general population "should any of the men whose accounts you are dealing with" - further supporting the assertion that the tokens had been accepted as an alternative to official coinage for at least 30 years!

Background to the acceptance of S&Co trade tokens as currency

In the 1870s Donald Strachan was riding a wave of power in the political arena and his new business partner, Charles Brisley (seen right), was a wealthy and well connected man in his own right having been previously located in Kokstad as the Griqua Government Secretary. The Cape Government had appointed Strachan as Superintendent of Native Affairs in the Nomansland region and he had formed his own military unit called the "Abalandolosi" (also spelt "abalondilzwe")or "the protectors" whose role could be likened to a district police force. The natives gave Donald Strachan the name of "Madonela" a name that carried great respect among the people he had settled with the Baca people, uniquely, making him a white chief and the Griquas honouring him by appointing him as the Magistrate in the Umzimkulu region (Strachan was the only non-Griqua to ever be appointed a Magistrate - notes in Killie Campbell reprint of Dower pp 139). Today the Madonela railway line runs from Ixopo to Pietermaritzburg in recognition of the positive impact that this man had on the peoples of the region. The introduction of the Strachan and Co trade tokens into the money-starved Nomansland in the mid 1870s by such prominent and well-respected men (Brisley and Strachan) was the catalyst for the region's growth as the coins were accepted as currency.

Not long after his coinage had been accepted as currency throughout Nomansland, in 1882, by the application of the Imperial Coinage Act Natal's currency was established on a British sterling basis. Interestingly Donald Strachan's coinage was largely circulated as currency in the region south of Natal's borders (in Nomansland south of the Umzimkulu river) and was, therefore, not affected by this development where the shortage of currency was not materially altered by an Act of Parliament. It was actually exasperated by the week long precarious horse and carriage ride through dangerous and isolated tracks that ran through the undulating hills on the way from Durban to Pietermaritzburg to the remote gate to Nomansland - Strachan's farm Clydesdale at Umzimkulu Drift. The Standard Bank branch at Kokstad opened in 1878, was left with no choice, accepting and distributing the S&Co tokens at this time.

Image right: Kokstad taken from Stony Kopje in 1878 before the bank was established

In the booklet produced by the Standard Bank in Kokstad in 2003 to commemorate the branch's 125th anniversary the bank notes, that the Strachan and Co coins were accepted as currency. The booklet also notes that it was not until the late 1890s when "many black inhabitants were recruited to work on the mines on the Witwatersrand that a large amount of money was at last brought into circulation (at Nomansland)." (The Standard Bank was the only bank in Nomansland until 1919 when the National Bank opened its doors in Kokstad).

Supporting evidence:

To put the argument that the Strachan and Co token coins were accepted as currency throughout this district into perspective we need to look at key supporting evidence.

Firstly, Donald Strachan was a man of immense political power in the region following his appointment as the Cape's Superintendent of Native Affairs for Nomansland, and also immense judicial power as he had been personally appointed by the Griqua leader, Adam Kok, as Umzimkulu's resident Magistrate. 

Secondly, as Ken Strachan told Scott Balson, Donald Strachan as Magistrate in Umzimkulu personally intervened and prevented the Griquas of East Griqualand from introducing their own one pound note in 1868. The Griqua Raad were frustrated by the highly unsatisfactory system of barter forced on the people because there was absolutely no currency in this isolated region. The notes were withdrawn as there was no financial basis on which to support this expensive but delusional exercise (of the one pound note) ordered by the Griqua Raad (Government). The notes were later burnt. More at this link.

However, the seed had been planted in Donald Strachan's mind and shortly thereafter he launched his own S&Co coinage. He did this after seeing for himself the success and acceptance of the Durban Club and other tokens in Natal.

*Copies of the extremely rare  unissued one pound note are carried in the original 1902 publication of Rev W Dower's book "The Early Annals of Kokstad and East Griqualand". Dower notes on page 129 that Strachan gave him a few bank notes to include in the book. The Balson Holdings Family Trust holds two copies of Dower's original book and copies of the 1978 Killie Campbell reprint which are used for research purposes.

Thirdly, the manner in which the Strachan & Co business blossomed in such an isolated area is, in itself, a trading miracle. It was the  release of the first S&Co trade tokens which created a financial bonanza for the Strachan stores as they were mostly used for trade outside the stores. In the Standard Bank's commemorative booklet they note, from their archives, how difficult it was for most traders at this time to survive in these isolated outposts.

Fourth, as a result of this financial stability its role, with its many stores spread across Nomansland, Strachan and Co through its tokens evolved into the region's "central banker" from the mid1870s to the 1930s. During this time over 20 stores were established - many of the stores, like those of F C Larkan, being acquired by Strachan when other traders were under financial duress. The towns of Kokstad and Matatiele, in the middle of nowhere, flourished as trading centres thanks to the wide acceptance of the Strachan coinage in the 1870s to 1890s. Little villages like Ixopo sprung up in Natal north of Umzimkulu with a small trading hub evolving on the back of the S&Co coins. (Ixopo is the home of Alan Paton's famous book "Cry the beloved country" about racial injustice - with Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu pastor as its central character. It has sold millions of copies.)

Fifth, the many traders who tried to emulate the success of the Strachan tokens as trading currency is best reflected by their attempts to produce their own token coins. All failed, even Mrs Frances Larkan who's tokens were the most successfully traded after those introduced by Donald Strachan.

Sixth, consider the volume of tokens counted - their total face value points to between seven hundred and one thousand pounds (sterling equivalent) of S&Co tokens having been circulated - a fortune in those days among a relatively small population. This large volume was clearly issued by the business to support the local economy of Nomansland and its trade - it far exceeded the amount that would be required for the trading stores to do business with their clients on a day to day basis.

Seventh, the geographic area that the S&Co tokens were used as currency far exceeded the size of  independent countries like Lesotho and Swaziland. (Take this link to see the geographic region in South Africa where the S&Co tokens were accepted as currency.) Click on the image on the right to see this area in detail.

Eighth, as recorded by Douglas Strachan, the isolated communities depended upon the S&Co currency which was used for a multiple of purposes from paying taxes to buying goods to making a donation at the local church.

Finally, the earlier S&Co and S&Co "MH" sets made no reference to "in goods" - an interesting omission! They could be and were used as bona fide currency.

The Strachan and Co coins are as much , if not more so, a major part of the South African numismatic story as the "ZAR" Coinage or the highly sought after Burgerspond.

Individual Strachan & Co tokens are rarely sold today. The growing global demand for this currency will mean that the prices will rise. It is estimated that there are only about 2,000 to 2,500 individual S&Co token pieces surviving today.