Following receipt of the original pages used to publish the "Kence" booklet I have studied one particular page (Page 10) and the handwritten alterations made by Clive at that time but not reflected in the published book.

I had always known that the one shilling (Type "C" or "3") shown as having such a high mintage was an oversight - seeing that it is the rarest coin. Now the secret has been revealed!

While the editing changes were noted on this page they were never made in the published work. I know it is very late to correct the errors relating to mintage but better late than never. For those of you holding a copy of Kence you might like to print out this page and the related scans as errata.

The mintage figures affected by this oversight are:

6d type 4 or set D mintage should be 5902 NOT 5014*
1/- type C (3) and D (4) are reversed.
2/- type 3 or set C mintage should be 365 NOT 1170
2/- type 4 or set D mintage should be 1830 NOT 1025

The error with the 1/- has been known for a long time but the biggest changes relate to the 2/- type C or set 3 which is much rarer than previously recorded and the 6d and 2/- set 4 or D which are more common

Scan of page 10 from the original page at this link:

*What is interesting is the unpublished hand written addition by Clive that states: "Of the 5902 specimens of the type D 6d, 888 were of a variety in which there were missing border pearls between 3 and 5 o'clock". This was part of my feedback on the initial draft at that time.

This was never published but when you add 888 to the published figure of 5014 you get the revised figure of 5902 for the type four (set D) 6d!

This forgotten element of the Strachan varieties got me carefully studying my set four 6ds and after several hours I discovered that there are a further two varieties of the set four 6d - those with a rim and those without a rim outside the pearls. I have several examples with the missing pearls between 3 and 5pm.

Related scan of the set four 6d here:

Hope this update helps those who have an interest in the Strachan coins. Would be interested to hear what type collectors out there have of the set four 6d!

Finally, I know that the coins I counted were not the full number (many caches of S&Co have been found in recent times) BUT on a number of over 20,000 it gives a clear relationship to the scarcity and numbers of each type minted. (NOTE: Most of these coins cointed by me in the 1970s were melted down in the late 1990s by Ken Strachan) - possibly up to 1,000 survived with several hundred of these being put into jewellery by Ford in Pietermaritzburg.

This errata is posted to keep the proportion of each type of coin in balance. The corrected figures of all Strachan coins can be seen at this link

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