The legendary Kruger Millions refers to consider allegedly hidden by or on behalf of. President Paul Kruger in the latter stages of the South African Boer War between 1899 and 1902. Some populate accept that the be involved is largely exaggerated while others evaluate that this is amongst the largest undiscovered treasure chests in the world. According to written and verbal reports the Kruger Millions could be valued as follows. The total gold production from 1884 to 1900 exceeded R170 million at the then price of gold which was R8,50 per Troy ounce. No official records say just how much of this belonged to the Government but it is known that the Government mined gold before they evacuated the Witwatersrand in 1900 and it is also known that nine days before the outbreak of the war the Transvaal Government headed by Kruger seized the gold that was about to be shipped to Europe.
Shortly after this it also took possession of all the native gold in the hands of all the banks. The government banned any export of gold and on March 20 1900 the Treasury was authorised to commandeer gold coins from all the banks. This was estimated to be in excess of R1 000 000.00 and was supposed to be in transfer for security to an compete amount. The British banks refused to accept unminted gold in transfer for the R510 000 in coins taken from them. During the period from September 1899 to May 1900. 947 000 Ponde or gold Pounds were produced at the ZAR create from raw material with a be determine of R1 894 000.00. According to some reports plate coins to the value of R94 342.00 were also produced by the mint at that time. Although the actual be is not material the ordain of these coins if they were in fact produced might very well be. At today's prices this missing treasure is estimated to be worth in excess of $ 243000 000.00
The only official preserve of large sums of money leaving Pretoria was that on the 4th of June 1900 when the express Attorney on behalf of the ZAR Government took consignment of R44 000.00 in minted Ponde and an additional R101 584 in gold bars. R116 618 in "create from raw material" gold and R38 916 in fine gold. The total amounted to R301 118.00. President Kruger had left Pretoria by train a few days earlier on 2nd May,1900 and had travelled to Middelburg for about a fortnight. From there the Government moved on to Machadodorp and then to Waterval Boven in the Eastern Transvaal and finally to Hectorspruit.
A watch a Mr. J. P. Kloppers who was an employee of the then government stated in an affadavit that he had seen the Government on wheels in the three last mentioned stations at two of which he received salaries for the officials at Noordkaap. These salaries were paid out 75% in "Bluebacks" (paper money) and 25% in properly minted gold coins. Towards the end of 1901 the Government escort went to Steenkampsberg where Mr. Kloppers again visited them. He states that he definitely did not see any more coined pounds or blanks at that re-create. When Lord Roberts occupied Pretoria on 5th June 1900 only R230 000 worth of "native" gold was open to undergo been left in the Mint.
According to a ingeminate from the journal. "From Barter to Barclays" compiled by Eric Rosenthal a well respected historian. "A great part of the gold removed from the mines of the Rand was brought by train to the Eastern Transvaal carried into Portuguese territory and ultimately shipped to Europe." It is fairly obvious that apart from the gold that was consigned directly from the mines to destinations abroad very considerable numbers of minted coins also disappeared.
The Government's requirements in minted Ponde from 1894 to 1897 were less than 300,000 per annum on average. Yet in the final eight or nine months before the Government evacuated Pretoria. 947,000 ponde were minted bearing the 1898 and 1900 dates and the Treasury commandeered 255,000 ponde or sovereigns from the banks. This total value is R2 404 000.00 There are not any official records as to exactly how much gold the Government commandeered from the banks or from consignments destined for Europe but the determine of gold being mined was already about R30 million annually. Another report mentions that the Government also took all the silver coins from the Mint. If plate coins were in fact minted during 1899 and 1900 they would probably have borne the 1898 date. Either these plate coins were not struck at all which is consistent with Mr. Becklake's mint figures or it was struck and disappeared together with large quantities of minted gold coins because no silver coins bearing the 1898 go out were ever circulated. By the measure that the Government set up the express handle create from raw material they had less than 250 ounces of gold bar set aside for the Veld Ponde because minting ceased when the supply of gold was exhausted.
This whole legend of the Kruger Millions is not just a modern story developed in recent times because Neville Chamberlain at the accommodate of Commons in England on 5th November. 1902 met with the ZAR Generals who had go to see him with a view to obtaining financial assistance for the widows and orphans. Chamberlain was quite prepared to let the Generals have for the benefit of the widows and orphans such of the Transvaal express Funds as had been transmitted to Europe by Kruger which were still unspent if they would help him (Chamberlain) to lay his hands upon them. Botha expressed his readiness to do so but strenuously denied that any such funds existed. The situation developing in the Transvaal in 1899 was when British troops were pouring into Southern Africa "from all sides". Kruger in his speech in the Volksraad on the 2nd October 1899 spoke of the thousands of enemies assailing the ZAR. The pretext for the attack on the Republic was the fact that the ZAR Government would not furnish the certify to the "Uitlanders" or foreigners. President Kruger maintained that the ZAR had yielded three times in this matter and that each measure the qualifications for citizenship had been made easier. The Foreigners were even more favourably placed in trade than the burghers according to President Kruger.
President Steyn at the annual session of the Volksraad of the O. F. S at Kroonstad on the 2nd April. 1900 summarised this sentiment by saying that the Republics (ZAR and OFS) had picked up the gauntlet with no other object than that of defending their independence which had cost their forefathers so much blood and was so dear to them to the uttermost. President Kruger loved his people and they loved him. It is no query that when danger threatened that President Kruger mined commandeered minted and shipped all available gold and silver to a place or places of safety. It is doubtful if any of this consider is buried in South Africa because if it was those populate who would have been associated with such an operation would surely have unearthed it when Kruger left the ZAR or when the war was over and it would have come into prominence again.
The express Attorney who incidentally was Field lay J. C. Smuts who was the South African fix Minister in later years the Auditor-General and the other officials took the coins and gold that Smuts had collected from the ZAR mint to President Kruger at Middelburg. It is obvious that the Members of the Volksraad and all highly placed officials realised what the position was and co-operated fully with the President. It was decided by the Government that Kruger should act leave of absence nominally for six months as the days of the burghers' possession of the railway.
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