From the basement hoard...

[Hoot]

...came this excellent 1934 East Africa 10 cents, KM-19. My brother-in-law brought me a hoard of foreign material about 3 months ago that included two of these in gem grade. They were thrown in with a variety of circulated stuff and had been mishandled and badly stored for years. The hoard was in an old peanut butter can and had been placed in a dusty and mouldy basement in the 1940s. The can was recovered about 1996, but it took this long for my brother-in-law to bring it to me.

 

I recovered the coin shown along with another and, since they were covered with a strange dust, submitted them to NCS. They then went to NGC and the one shown graded MS67RB! The other graded a very-respectable MS66RB.

 

I'd like to know more about the design elements. I can only guess, but the crown must be elemental to British rule at the time. The horns crossed on the reverse must be from some sort of antelope, but again, only a guess.

 

 

Hoot

[C.Urch]

The horns crossed on the reverse must be from some sort of antelope, but again, only a guess

 

Very nice coin! I would venture a guess that the horns were actually Elephant Tusks.

[Hoot]

Thanks clausurch! Of course, that makes much more sense!

 

Hoot

[Wihlborg]

Very nice Hoot!

 

As clausurch has said the 'Horns' are actually elephant tusks.

 

John

[JamminJ]

Here's some info about the crown:

 

I looked and looked for a real picture but this is the best I could do.

 

It's called the imperial, King's or Tudor crown and was adopted in 1902 with the ascension of Edward VII, remaing in use all through the George V years until the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth II.

 

Conflicting stories about the use of the crowns fall into two catagories. In the first, the above crown was used by male monarchs and another used for the queens, with the switch in 1952 simply due to the queen's gender. The second story says the Kings crown was simpy considered more "imperial" looking and was used when the Britich King was also Emperor ot India but cast aside with Indian independence in 1948.

 

-JamminJ

[Hoot]

Thank you JJ for your excellent insights.

 

Hoot