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Back in 2021 I purchased a gilt belt buckle made from ZAR pennies, each of which had been cut out and engraved, giving Kruger a variety of types of headdress and, of course, his distinctive "Oom Paul" pipe.

This, I had imagined, was a stand-alone piece, to be worn with a leather or fabric belt. That is until a couple of weeks ago, when a bracelet, constructed in a remarkably similar manner, surfaced on eBay. Once in my hands, it was clear that this and the buckle belonged together. The clasps on the back of the buckle were a perfect match for the loops at each end of the "bracelet".

This posed a problem, in that the buckle was far too big for a wrist. Looking at the connecting chains through a glass I soon saw that one pair had been tampered with, indicating, I believe, that a length of what was once a belt has been removed.

Below I have included a photograph of the "bracelet" next to a waist-belt made from ZAR half-crowns, suggesting that roughly twelve cut-out pennies are missing.

Should anyone here happen to come across these, it would be wonderful to be able to restore the belt to its original form.

Interestingly, the seller of the belt fragment tells me that the buckle also passed through his hands some years back, but, unfortunately, he is unaware of the current whereabouts of the remaining piece.



















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Your collection is ever-more fascinating.
I expect items are being added to it as fast as they are unveiled on this forum!

Neville, what a magnificent find/reunification. Given that these carved Pennies haven’t been separated individually and given a diameter of a Penny of about 30 mm then, allowing for space for the connecting chains, my guess is that you probably should be looking for two similar bracelets of five or six Pennies each. The belt on its own is more or less unwearable and taking into account that the historical value of the complete item was probably not recognized, say, a half century ago, a split creating two easy to wear bracelets with the buckle and end part remaining, probably would have made sense. Good hunting!