ERIC'S SCHENA'S MARSHALL HOLE NOTES
The E-Sylum (12/20/2020)
Book Content
ERIC'S SCHENA'S MARSHALL HOLE NOTES
On Tuesday my Northern Virginia Numismatic social group Nummis Nova held a Zoom call in lieu of our usual dinner meeting. Present were host Aaron Packard, Eric Schena, myself, Bill Eckberg and our guest Denis Loring. Discussions covered a range of topics including selling at auctions, new books, and our usual show-and-tell. Eric Schena followed up with this nice write-up of his display items. Thanks!-Editor
I "virtually brought" a couple of interesting items from turn of the last century southern Africa, a wee bit different from my regular Mid-Atlantic based material. First up are a pair of emergency notes issued in Bulawayo, Rhodesia during the second Anglo-Boer War in 1900. These are simple notes printed on cardstock about the size of business cards with Rhodesian postage and revenue stamps on the reverse. They were in use for only a few months. Called Marshall Hole notes from the big signature of the commissioner found on them, they are not as showy as the more famous siege notes from Mafeking, Kimberley, or Koffyfontein, they are pretty neat things regardless.
I also showed a couple of tokens related from the South African diamond mining industry. This one is only tangentially associated with it, but it is from a department store of sorts in the heart of Kimberley issued by Gowie Bros. & Co. and date from the late nineteenth century when Cecil Rhodes was building de Beers into the monopoly it is now. The Gowie Brothers building still stands in the center of the historic district.
