The “Oom Paul Minting Press” is still working after 129 years!
“This is one of the oldest working coin presses in the world with a manufacturing date of 1891.
President Paul Kruger, then the President of the old ZAR (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek) ordered two presses from Ludw. Loew & Co. in Berlin to be used at the first South African Mint on Church Square, Pretoria.
More than 8 million coins were minted between 1892 and 1900 on the “Oom Paul”. The so called “Kruger millions”, Sammy Marks golden tickeys, special 1947 crowns for the visit of the British Royal family, the first decimal 1c coins in 1961, the first Krugerrand in 1967, the first gold Protea in 1986 and the first R2 cOin were minted on this historical press. The first of South Africa’s various other new 24-carat gold coin series were also launched on this press.
“Oom Paul” has survived two wars, been worked on five different premises and was involved in the manufacturing of four coin series and various other prestigious items.
This is one of the only remaining presses of its kind in the world. “Oom Paul” was originally steam operated, but has been modified to work on electricity.
Blanks are manually fed into the cOining press.” (Source: SA Mint Museum Brochure)
The SA Mint has produced limited numbers of “Oom Paul” cOins with the Coin World Mintmark. It started in 1996 with the cOin World (CW) R5, but significant numbers were only pressed from 1999 onwards.
They were pressed annually until the present, with the exception of 2003 (nil minted) and in 2009 when the Oom Paul was used to struck CW R2 cOins.
Although the CW R5 is technically only R5 worth, the catalogue value of the rare 2002 Prooflike CW R5 is a stunning R18000!
According to the SA Mint, only 106 of these cOins were minted and they are considered to be one of the numismatist’s real “RARE FINDS”!
They are so scarce, some people doubt that these coins were struck!
