Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal - 1880-97

[Guest Darrell]

The Cape of Good Hope General Service Medal, 1880 - 1897

Instituted on the 4th December 1900 by the Cape of Good Hope authorities after the approval of the medal by Queen Victoria. Interesting to note this was in the middle of the Boer War in South Africa.

Description: 36mm diameter in silver with a swivelling suspender, Obverse depicts the veiled bust of Queen Victoria, with the legend VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX. Reverse depicts the coat of arms of the Cape Colony with a Protea flower under. The inscription CAPE OF GOOD HOPE is around the upper perimeter of the reverse.

Naming is in engraved upright serif capitals. Occasionally turns up with impressed naming - these are considered to be late issues.

Ribbon; dark blue with a wide central yellow stripe.

Awarded for the suppression of minor native uprisings on the Cape, in geographical areas as defined by the three bars issued:

Transkei (13th September 1880 - 15th May 1881)

Basutoland (13th September 1880 - 27th April 1881)

Bechuanaland (24th December 1896 - 30th July 1897)

The Following medal was issued to Trooper W. Conlon of the Sommerset East Burghers. He was entitled to the "Basutoland" clasp as per medal rolls.

Obverse:

[Guest Darrell]

Closeup of Basutoland Clasp.

[Guest Darrell]

Closeup of Obverse:

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Reverse:

[Guest Darrell]

Closeup of Reverse:

[Guest Darrell]

Pictures of the Engraved Naming on the rim. This one was very hard to get decent pictures of due to the patina.

a.

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b.

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c.

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d.

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e.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Hi - Darrell. Nice to see a good explanatory post to this - fairly rare medal. It is peculiar to Sth. Africa and the numbers are small. If I remember , in the low thousands for Basutoland (now Lesotho) and Bechuanaland (now Botswana) and only just over 700 for Transkei (which is in the Eastern Cape).

They have gone-up in recent years and stand at about £200 ($300) - dependent on unit and rank. We have had them on GMIC in groups, but I think this may be the first single ? Have you been away ? Mervyn

[Guest Darrell]

Thanks Mervyn. Pretty uncommon medal compared to most of the other Victorian Medals.

To make this one a little special, only 18 were awarded to the Somerset East Burghers.

As a side note only 23 medals were ever awarded that had all three clasps. They have sold for around the 3000-4000 GBP mark :speechless1: