We Buy
Government Notes
Clegg Governor banknotes and historic mining share certificates from South Africa's early financial history.
What Makes Government Notes Collectible
South African scripophily — the collecting of historic government notes, bank issues, and company share certificates — traces the young Union's rapid financial development in the decades following the discovery of diamonds and gold. From the earliest Reserve Bank paper money to ornately engraved mining share certificates, these documents are tangible artifacts of a period when Johannesburg grew from a mining camp into one of the world's great financial centres. Their rarity, artistry, and direct link to pivotal figures and companies make them prized by collectors of Africana and financial history alike.
Makers & Items We Buy
Clegg Governor Notes (1921-1931)
William Henry Clegg, a career Bank of England official who had risen to chief accountant by 1919, was appointed the first Governor of the South African Reserve Bank on 17 December 1920, guiding the institution from its establishment through 30 June 1921 until his retirement on 31 December 1931. Under his governorship the Reserve Bank issued its first banknotes to the public on 19 April 1922, designed by H.L.G. Pilkington and bearing a watermark of Jan van Riebeeck — the inaugural paper currency of an independent South African central bank. Notes from this founding decade carry Clegg's signature, marking them as the earliest Reserve Bank issues and tying them directly to the institution's creation during a turbulent era that included the 1931-1932 gold standard crisis. Because so few examples survive in collectable condition from this early, low-circulation period, Clegg-signed notes are among the most sought-after and valuable pieces in South African banknote collecting.
Mining Share Certificates
South Africa's mining share certificate tradition began with the Kimberley diamond rush of the 1870s-1880s, which produced Africa's first regulated stock exchange in Kimberley, and accelerated after the 1886 discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, when the Johannesburg Stock Exchange was founded in 1887 to channel capital into the flood of new mining ventures. Hundreds of gold and diamond mining companies issued share certificates during this boom, many of which failed or were absorbed within years, leaving behind paper records of long-vanished enterprises. These certificates are prized by collectors for their ornate Victorian and Edwardian engraving — allegorical vignettes, elaborate borders, and mine-headgear or prospector imagery — as well as for bearing the evocative names of historic Rand and Kimberley-era companies no longer in existence. Genuine certificates from the classic gold-standard era are increasingly scarce, and their combination of financial history, decorative artistry, and connection to South Africa's mineral revolution makes them a distinct and desirable category within scripophily.
Get an Instant, No-Obligation Offer
Send us photos via WhatsApp or book a home visit — our specialists travel to you anywhere in South Africa.