World coins chat: German East Africa

German East Africa was a territory comprising present-day Tanganyika, Rwanda & Burundi. A small part of northern Mozambique, the Kionga Triangle was also part of it. The Deutsche Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft or German East African Company established the colony in 1885. When Sultan Bargash of Zanzibar protested, Chancellor Bismarck sent 5 warships to bomb the sultan's palace. The Swahili Coast was divided between the Germans and British, with the latter gaining control of Mombasa, which would later become Kenya.

The Germans made Tanganyika a state-run colony in 1891, and put large efforts in developing the economy, but it never yielded a profit despite gold mines found at Sekenke in 1907. What the Germans did very well is organising elementary education for all locals, unmatched in any other African colony. The Swahili word for school is Shule derived from German Schule.

During WW1 the British and Belgians invaded and annexed German East Africa, after which the League of Nations mandates of Ruanda-Urundi (Belgium) and Tanganyika (Britain) were established.

German East Africa used the German East African Rupie, which was at par with the Indian Rupee and subdivided in 64 Pysa. In 1904, it was decimalised into 100 Heller and a new exchange rate was established at 15 Rupien = 20 German Mark. As 20.4 Mark was equal to Pound Sterling, this set the Rupie to approx 1s4d, less than the Indian Rupee's value of 1s6d.

During WW1 the Germans minted emergency issues, amongst others a gold 15 Rupien coin which was used to pay the soldiers.

German East African Rupie coins are very beautiful if you manage to find one. They sell at around 35 EUR for a VF.

The Rupie was replaced by the East African Florin in 1920 at par, which meant a revaluation of close to 50%.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/afrique_orientale_allemande-1.html

Coins from DOA (Deutsch Ost Afrika) are hard to find. I do collect coins sinds my youth and only have one coin from that "country".

German East African coins are really intriguing because they are Germany's only colonial coins ever. More than any other colonial issues, they bring to mind a world that doesn't exist any longer. Who could have guessed that today's border between Kenya and Tanzania would still be a direct result of Bismarck's actions?


This is one of the provisional WWI issues and one of my favourite "coins with a story". The railroad that the Germans built stretched from Dar es Salaam to Tabora to Ujiji, deep inland. When WWI was declared, Germany's inferior navy (they tried their hardest to beat the British, but...) was unable to maintain a connection between the fatherland and German East Africa. Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck found himself stuck in Tanyangika with just a few hundred German officers and a few thousand (very well-disciplined) native troops. Using their knowledge of the land and his own tactical skills, he managed to hold out against much larger invading armies for the entirety of the Great War.

It was wartime, and coins were being hoarded; emergency currency had to be issued. Luckily, one of the last ships to arrive in GEA before the British blockade went up had been carrying a big shipment of paper, so printing emergency banknotes was no problem - but coins were what was really needed. The Colonel set up shop in Tabora after Dar es Salaam was overrun and managed to set up a mint using equipment salvaged from a sunken German warship, striking 20 heller coins made of copper and brass from used casings. The dies that he used were engraved anew every time, rather than being copied from one set of master matrices, so there are a lot of varieties in this series. He also saw the need to transform a pile of gold bullion into actual coins in order to pay off his soldiers and facilitate local commerce. The British sovereign was very popular in the area, so the Colonel set to work creating gold coins with a value of 15 rupien, roughly equal to one sovereign. One coin was given to every soldier in his irregular army, with the rest being used in local trade. Two sets of directly engraved dies were used to strike these coins (the first set eventually broke under pressure). The design, of a roaring elephant, distinguishes itself as perhaps the most wonderful provisional wartime coin of all time. Of course, I don't own one, but if you gave me $10000 I'd be hard-pressed to think of a coin that I would want more:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces21867.html

The situation deteriorated and provisional banknotes began to be issued, rather than coins. A toy printing press was found on a German farm and banknotes were printed on anything - examples exist on wallpaper, stationery from companies private and public, note-paper, anything did the job. Eventually, Berlin was captured - yet the Colonel was still out there. When he heard of the capitulation of Germany, his army handed in their guns. The British, the Belgians, nor the Portuguese ever managed to catch the Colonel, and his escapades in East Africa had distracted no less than 300,000 Allied troops, preventing them from reaching the fronts in Europe. Considering he had never commanded more than 14,000 men, this was an impressive figure indeed. In later life, he made sure that every provisional banknote he had issued to his men (almost 9,000,000 were issued) was honoured at its full face value.

I just added an 1891 pesa to my country collection a couple of days ago. That is probably the only one I'll have from German East Africa.    

The 1 Heller is also affordable, around 6 EUR or so.

Quote: nalaberongEventually, Berlin was captured

I think you've mistaken the 1st with the 2nd WW in this regard, the Entente never set a foot more into German territory, in the most south western parts, than at the outbreak of the war.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/erster-weltkrieg-die-wichtigsten-schlachten-und-frontverlaeufe-a-940133.html

Quote: nalaberongGerman East African coins are really intriguing because they are Germany's only colonial coins ever. More than any other colonial issues, they bring to mind a world that doesn't exist any longer. Who could have guessed that today's border between Kenya and Tanzania would still be a direct result of Bismarck's actions?

There are also German colonial coins from Kiau Chau and German New Guinea. And there are so many examples for current borders that were determined in colonial times much before Bismarcks times (South America, Africa, Asia...). Some of these borders led to wars and serious conflicts because they weren't clear for all so there were disputes about them or because they split peoples without consider the people living there...

Quote: Idolenz

Quote: nalaberongEventually, Berlin was captured

I think you've mistaken the 1st with the 2nd WW in this regard, the Entente never set a foot more into German territory, in the most south western parts, than at the outbreak of the war.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/erster-weltkrieg-die-wichtigsten-schlachten-und-frontverlaeufe-a-940133.html

Yes, I don't remember Germany being overrun, but otherwise Great info, Nalaberong, do you look all this stuff up, or do you know it? Great story about the German Colonel, that is so cool, sounds like he should have been governor.  How do you have so many nice coins from all these hard to collect places?

Quote: Idolenz

Quote: nalaberongEventually, Berlin was captured

I think you've mistaken the 1st with the 2nd WW in this regard, the Entente never set a foot more into German territory, in the most south western parts, than at the outbreak of the war.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/erster-weltkrieg-die-wichtigsten-schlachten-und-frontverlaeufe-a-940133.html

No, um, the truth is, that, uh, I intentionally put mistakes in to make sure that other people are reading

You've got me - I mean, I can pretend to be semi-competent on history, but the World Wars in Europe are just depressing and I've never been able to really get into them.

As for Kiau Chau and German New Guinea... maybe I should have said that these are Germany's only "affordable" colonial coins ever...

These indiviidual country themed threds are an absolute blessing. I love reading about coin trivia, especially as I can get the information in a handful of well crafted and concise paragraphs instead of having to research multiple sources.

I can't begin to tell you how much I've learned from reading some of these threads. I don't have time to read them all but as they are nicely indexed the information is always readily at hand (thank you David).

For the magnificent efforts by Jokinen and Nalaberong in bringing these topics to life, I would like to propose that next time a Numista token is produced at least a part of the profits could be used to have two specially engraved and sent to these fine gentlmen as a sign that Numista recognises the value of such contributions. (As stated above, I have only had the time to read those topics which really interest me, so if someone else has been making equally good contributions which I have missded, please don't be offended by your ommission)

I've only one question about the country, not the coins: what happened about these territories after splitting between other colonial empires, about such advantages as schools? Did they try to keep such advantages or did they turned off everything to a more British or Belgian-style colonization?

Thank you Peter for the appreciating words. And thanks to Nalaberong there's a nice variety in coin facts and history, and of course nice scans.

Chomp-master has contributed quite a bit as well, especially when it comes to French history.

Quote: chomp-masterI've only one question about the country, not the coins: what happened about these territories after splitting between other colonial empires, about such advantages as schools? Did they try to keep such advantages or did they turned off everything to a more British or Belgian-style colonization?

On Wikipedia it says that an American black empowerment charity organisation visited Tanganyika in 1924 and concluded the British were miles behind in their education efforts.

What is surprising here is the apparent goodwill of the Germans towards the locals, where at the same time the revolting Herero tribe in German South West Africa was massacred. Europeans in Africa caused a lot of mixed stories. Not only the Germans have their dark pages in colonial history.

Quote: jokinen

Quote: chomp-masterI've only one question about the country, not the coins: what happened about these territories after splitting between other colonial empires, about such advantages as schools? Did they try to keep such advantages or did they turned off everything to a more British or Belgian-style colonization?

On Wikipedia it says that an American black empowerment charity organisation visited Tanganyika in 1924 and concluded the British were miles behind in their education efforts.

What is surprising here is the apparent goodwill of the Germans towards the locals, where at the same time the revolting Herero tribe in German South West Africa was massacred. Europeans in Africa caused a lot of mixed stories. Not only the Germans have their dark pages in colonial history.

Yeah, completely opposite...

You said about GSWA but I didn't see this colony here. Does anyone know if thet minted for this colony or not?

Counterstamped coins

The Mozambique Protectorate counterstamped the Quarter and Half and One Rupee of German East Africa as well as the Indian Rupee with a crowned or uncrowned "PM" for use in their country. The twenty Heller was counterstamped with an "M"

​awesome coins, - one of my favorite field of collecting! Tabora` 20 hellers made of gun metall, jars and other bronze or brass material, ar just incredible in their simplicity and beauty :)

I have one coin from German East Africa: an 1891 pesa. That will probably be the only one I get from there.

I am a big fan of the 20 Heller. Thanks for the write up Nalaberong! I would only add that I have read that the British took huge losses, mainly from sickness (malaria, etc.) while General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (known as the Lion of Africa) lead them around the jungle country side of the colony. That is not to say that Lettow-Vorbeck never fought the British. In one pivotal battle at Mahiwa in October 1917, Lettow-Vorbeck lost 519 men killed, wounded, or missing while the British lost 2,700. For almost a year Lettow-Vorbeck's men lived off the land and from provisions captured from the British and Portuguese.

Here are some links to the different varieties of the 20 Heller.

http://coinquest.com/cgi-bin/cq/coins?main_coin=15277

http://www.tokencoins.com/gea01.htm

I have the 1 rupie and it’s one of my favourite coins. The Neu-Guinea Compagnie also issued coins for a brief period (which I’ve been hunting down for ages) but other than that all German colonies (Kamerun, Togoland, Samoa, South-West Africa and eventually German New Guinea after the company was nationalised in 1899) used the goldmark.