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Extract from the Introduction of the Book Titled Gouvernements Notes by Rian Visser and Johan Gouws
On Monday, 28 May 1900, More than 7 Months into the second Anglo Boer-War the Government of Transvaal signed a new law authorizing the issue of Emergency Paper Currency for the purpose of funding the Republic's financial obligations in the times of the war. This law became known as the Z A R Law No1 of 1900. These notes would be printed at the then modern State Printing Works in Pretoria in denominations of ₤1, ₤5, ₤10, ₤20, ₤50 and ₤100.
Printing in Pretoria
Within just a few days, with the enemy closing in on Pretoria, the Government Printers managed to produce more than 47,000 high quality notes from its facilities, before a decision was made to remove all equipment, paper,coins, gold and more and leave the premises before the British siezed Pretoria. After vacating the premises, further printing was moved to Pietersburg.
From recent research, it was concluded that the Pretoria issues may have been issued in three different prints or issues. Some design issues occured in the second and third print. The two lower denominations, 1 and 5 Pounds, were printed in all three prints or issues, while the 10 and 20 Pounds were issued in the 1st and 3rd prints and 50 and 100 Pounds were only issued in the 1st print.
Printing in Pietersburg
After the British siezure of Pretoria, the printing of notes was moved to Pietersburg. Here the Government contracted a private printing company, Van den Burg & Jorissen to print government notes and stamps.
Notes issued in Pietersburg started appearing to have embedded watermarks. The reason for this is the paper they used, which belonged to Van den Burg &Jorissen, which already had watermarks embedded for their clients. The quality of Pietersburg issued notes is often much worse than the notes issued in Pretoria.
With the British forces closing in on Pietersburg, a decision was again made to vacate the area and move to a more undisclosed and secure area.
Printing Te Velde (Translation meaning: In the Fields)
After the British siezed Pietersburg and destroyed the printing works, paper was gathered from schools and the printing was then done in the fields. Notes printed in this issue were made from a makeshift print fixed on a wagon with typical school paper collected from local schools during the end of the war.
In Pilgrim's Rest, a small number of notes were created, which today is referred to as Barter notes. These Barter Notes were printed to offset the losses of the Pietersburg notes at Roossenekal. An order was made by De Villiers to seal the notes and to hide them. These newly designed notes had the town of Pietersburg printed on them. The Barter note would then become the sample of what the future Te Velde notes would look like.
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