Mervyn Mitton Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 During the Boer War - 1899-1902 - we captured many Boer Commando and regular troops. To keep them under guard within South Africa would have tied-up too many troops - and the decision was made to send them to overseas camps within British territories. The Countries involved were - St. Helena ; Bermuda ; Ceylon and India. The prisoners were allowed to make use of local materials to carve items of jewellery, furniture - and also metal items. The most common material that they had were the Boer Coins in their pockets. These were used in many different ways and some beautiful objects were made from melted silver. This is a brooch - fused together into this shape and with a pin on the back. The main coin is a 2/6 - two shillings and sixpence - dated 1895. The flanking ones look like shillings (1/-) but the date and value have been covered with the rather clumsy soldering. This set of coins ran from 1892 to 1898 and were minted in Pretoria. They had 3d ; 6d ; 1/- ; 2/- ; 2/6d and a five shilling piece. In gold they had the Pond - which was the same size as a Sovereign. CLICK TO ENLARGE PICTURE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mervyn Mitton Posted February 3, 2012 Author Share Posted February 3, 2012 Reverse - the smaller coins could be 6d or, 1/- CLICK TO ENLARGE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Govender Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 (edited) Pow items are very collectable. Will try and upload some from my collection Regards Anthony Edited September 7, 2012 by Anthony Govender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Govender Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Hello Everyone Here is one piece that's special in my collection. Mary must have been quite a girl. The love demonstrated in the work done by the POW prisoner on this coin shows how much Mary meant to him. He must have also been quite an artist. This a ZAR (South Africa) Two and Half Shillings coin dated 1896. A truly superb piece. Regards Anthony Govender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mervyn Mitton Posted September 8, 2012 Author Share Posted September 8, 2012 Anthony - welcome to GMIC. This is a very fine example of a POW carved coin - probably one of the best I have seen. Somewhere, there is a further post where I showed the booklet from the Jo'burg collector. Useful for different styles of working. I have noticed quite a few later copies of these coming onto the market - buyers must look carefully . Mervyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Govender Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Hi Mervyn Thank you. I have a copy of the book. It is by Ray Leppans from JHB. It covers items of POW interest from his personal collection. I will try and upload others from my collection. Some quite interesting ones. Regards Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mervyn Mitton Posted September 9, 2012 Author Share Posted September 9, 2012 Anthony - I shall also look forward to seeing some of your splendid medals on the British section. Mervyn ps - modern SA medals (post 1945) go on the South African section of the British Forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Govender Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 (edited) As promised, here are a few examples from my collection. The coin are a Burgers Pond (Extremely Rare) and a ZAR 1898 Pond. Attached is a genuine diamond. Of all the coin jewellery, this is the best I have seen Regards Anthony Govender Edited January 4, 2013 by Anthony Govender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Govender Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 More Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Govender Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Some more P.O.W art Anthony Govender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Govender Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 (edited) Last batch for now..... Will upload some other later Anthony Govender Edited January 4, 2013 by Anthony Govender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurence Strong Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 (edited) Interesting items Mervyn and Anthony. It's interesting to see what bored minds will come up with.... Larry Edited January 4, 2013 by Laurence Strong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QSAMIKE Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Why POW art could it not also be called trench art????? Here are a few items from my collection.... Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mervyn Mitton Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 Really Mike - I'm surprised at your question - the Boers never had time to do Trench Art - too busy shooting Brits.. They did have the time as POW's when we sent them to India, Ceylon, St. Helena and Bermuda..................... Some very nice examples in your collection - I suppose, like coins, they had them with them and were able to make the carvings. Mervyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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