The Durban Club 6d -
South Africa's first token coin

In 1852 the Durban Quoit Club was formed. Two years later this developed into the Durban Club which arose in the first instance for the purpose of playing billiards. The purpose of the Durban Club tokens was to supplement the acute shortage of small change. The value of the token is believed to relate to the cost of playing billiards at the club.

Source: The Tokens of Natal, Pat Moran

There are three coins in the set - all owned by the Balson Holdings Family Trust - see images below (the trust owns seven Durban Club token coin pieces including the original pattern piece). Four of these extremely rare token coins were purchased in February 2007 from the Durban Club.

Durban Club token (Natal):

NOTE: The success of the Durban Club 6d is attributed to the launch of South Africa's first indigenous coinage, the Strachan and Co trade tokens

Very Rare (Fuld) Rarity Scale: R - 5).

The Nickle Pieces (above and below)
1) the larger sized floral above and smaller, rounder floral below
2) The coin above has the milled edge, the one below the plain edge

The rare white metal coin below that makes up the set

The four coins purchased from the Durban Club in 2007:

In 2007 the pieces below were purchased from the Durban Club by the Balson Holdings Family Trust - the last piece being the original pattern coin with a brass overlay and totally unique. (Fuld) Rarity Scale: R-10. (The brass coating is missing from the surface in places as can be seen in the scans).
The first two pieces displayed below - Milled and Plain edge are the finest known.

Milled

 Edge

Plain

 Edge

White

 Metal

The extremely rare brass

 pattern piece*.

Value in 2006: The Durban Club 6d tokens are highly sought after and trade at up to US$1,000 a piece in Unc. Rarely seen on auction. The pattern piece is extremely rare* - all Durban Club 6d tokens stem from these pieces. *Anthony Govender and Keith Murray (both from Durban) have this coin - see this comment. 

The scarcity of the pieces above is demonstrated by the fact that it has taken the Balson Holdings Family Trust thirty years to acquire them.

Images right: the Durban Club in 1906 - sketch on a postcard. The same elegant building survives today.

The rare Durban Club six pence was issued in 1860 the three known known varieties according to Dr Theron, Pat Moran, E J Maynard, Hern and others are displayed above. These varieties include: a token with a milled edge, a plain edge and a white metal token.

Which variety came first?

From our research we suggest the tokens were issued over a number of years using the original 1860 dies.

The pattern piece in the Balson Holdings Family Trust collection supports our view that:

  1. The Milled Edge piece was the first - issued in 1860 (matching larger floral displays)
  2. The Plain Edge piece followed some time later
  3. The White Metal piece was the last coin issued by the Durban Ckub

The impact of the Durban Club tokens on S Africa's first indigenous coinage

It was the successful circulation of the Durban Club 6d that led to the Umzimkulu trading firm Strachan & Co circulating their own coins which became South Africa's first indigenous currency. Margaret Rainier notes on page 150 of her book "Madonela" that Donald Strachan stayed at the Durban Club when he visited Durban and Ken Strachan (the trading firm's Managing Director in the 1970s) noted that his great grandfather had based the release of his coins on the success of the Durban Club 6d.

The Durban Club is the city's premier club today, located in a prime position overlooking the bay. Its origins in 1854 apparently began (according to George Russell the author of "History of old Durban") when a small group of quoits players established a small grassy patch near the bay on which to play their favoured game. Later a billiards table was purchased and the club simply blossomed from there on. Pat Moran's book on tokens in Natal also gives loads of interesting background information on the Durban Club and famous Durban Club 6d.

The historic Durban Club notes:

The Durban Club was founded on the 14th June 1854 for gentlemen to meet over a game of billiards. The second clubhouse was erected by the Durban Club Building Company in 1863. Building operations for the third clubhouse started in October 1900 and were completed in the grand Edwardian Tradition in 1904. In 1936 improvements and additions comprising 23 bedrooms, a new bar and private dining room were constructed. During 2001 and 2002 a programme was undertaken to restore the Club's function rooms to their original splendour, and to update the accommodation facilities. (Scott Balson's family knew Derek De Haaff, the manager of the Durban Club in the 1970s, very well and visited it quite a few times.)

The excellent book on the "Tokens of Natal" by Pat Moran gives far greater depth into the history of these token coins. See also the Pietermaritzburg Franklin Penny.

A Durban Club invoice dd 17th November 1900 notes a debt of nearly twelve pounds by a Col Bayley. This invoice is in the Balson Holdings Family Trust collection.

The Durban Club today is but a shadow of its former glory. The violence that now reigns in post-1994 South Africa has effectively closed the club down. It was purchased in the dawn of the 21st Century by a young black female doctor and is still laden with furnishing and memorabilia representing its historic past.

In the 1980s Scott Balson briefly stayed there when his school friend's father, Derek De Haaf, was the manager. 

The Durban Club today - shadow of its past

While the magnificent past is still apparent its degridation is equally apparent. The accommodation now offered is sub standard as Scott found out when he returned in 2006. The old gentry of years gone no longer walk its hallowed halls in the evenings and the bar does not need a barman as it is empty. The black gangs who wait outside to empty the pockets of the affluent have made sure of that.

The images below were taken during Scott's brief, and sad, stay at a historic location once frequented by some of South Africa's most prominent personalities of the past. 

It is clear that it is destined to be torn down to be replaced by yet another set of apartment blocks under a new regime. Ironically the new owner is Robert Mugabe - President of Zimbabwe - how Cecil Rhodes would turn in his grave! More at this link

The Club's unique dome

Furniture heralding a

 majestic past

The image on the right
showing the staircase displays
a framed photograph which
could be the Queen of England
but it is not.

It is the new Queen of the
Durban Club - its new African
owner - a well-connected
black female doctor.

The hidden courtyard

Staircase once used by the
country's who's who



Article on the Durban Club Token Coins at this link

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