Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 1273. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GERMAN EAST AFRICA. AV 15 Rupees. Tabora mint. Dated 1916. Crowned imperial eagle / Trumpeting elephant before mountainous landscape; date and mintmark in exergue. Type I, with the arabesque below the T of OSTAFRIKA. KM 16.1 (Tanzania); Friedberg 1. VF, ex jewelry. ($500)

From the Clifford H. DeWitt Collection.

The "mint" of Tabora was actually the workshop at the town's railway station. It struck both brass and gold coins for regional use while the German colony was facing a British invasion during World War I. The 15 rupees was one of the few gold coins struck in Africa south of the Sahara prior to the period of independent states after the 1960's.