Historical context At the First World War outbreak, in August 1914, Dar-es-Salam, the capital of German East Africa, was bombed by the British HMS Astraea and Pegasus cruisers. Consequently, the capital was moved inland, to Tabora. The German Empire attempted to bypass the maritime blockade by using Zeppelins to deliver supplies to Tabora, but this plan failed. Due to the lack of a connection to the empire, East Africa was cut off from the imperial gold and silver coinage, which made it difficult for the German East African Company to conduct domestic and international transactions. Therefore, the colonial government had to print banknotes and mint coins locally to continue paying the Askari mercenaries. This resulted in the only German imperial coinage with the mint mark "T" for Tabora. The Mint The emergency mint was established in a postal railway workshop owned by the German East Africa Bank in Tabora, where for security reasons, a corrugated iron shelter was put together inside the building for the production of the gold coins. The workforce consisted of two Indians, six Africans and seven Sinhalese goldsmiths recruited in Dar es Salaam. The minting equipment was salvaged from the SMS Königsberg light cruiser, scuttled on 11 July 1915 by two British monitors. The basic information about how to mint such coins was found in a Meyers' Encyclopaedia in the governor's office. Minting The gold 15 rupee pieces, dubbed elephants, were minted from the gold of the Kironda gold mine, situated near Sekenke, about 200 km northeast of Tabora. The mining engineer in charge of the mine, Dr Friedrich Schumacher, was asked by the colonial governor to strike as many coins as possible using the limited resources available. The unrefined gold brought from the Kironda mine contained up to around 20% silver in its natural state. The 750‰ fineness was achieved by adding copper to the raw alloy. The gold coin was designed to have similar weight and dimensions to the British sovereigns, which were a very popular trade coinage in Africa at the time. Consequently, the coin is sometimes referred to as the Tabora Sovereign. The official rate of exchange was set to 15 rupien to 20 German marks. However, the gold content of the two coins was the same. The Tabora Mint issued around 16 thousand 15-rupien coins in 1916. However, the vast majority of them were melted down after Tabora was captured by the Belgian army in 1918. Design A Sinhalese goldsmith from Zanzibar was hired to engrave the dies. According to Kurt Jäger, he "worked particularly carefully when under the influence of alcohol". The image of the elephant depicted on the reverse was chosen instead of the emperor's effigy due to the important role played by the ivory trade for the economy of East Africa. The mountain peaks behind the elephant are often considered to be Kilimanjaro. However, the resemblance is limited, Kilimanjaro being an isolated volcano topped by a flat plateau. The silhouette of the central peak on the reverse is rather similar to Mount Meru. To help expedite the process, the design was engraved directly into the used dies, instead of a master die, which is the more common practice. Likely due to the crude minting equipment, the first die broke, and thus a second was engraved. This explains the two known varieties listed below. Varieties: The varieties can be easily distinguished by the position of the arabesque of the eagle's left wing in relation to the legend. However, there are numerous other minor differences between the two dies. Early Die Variety (KM#16.1) Obverse: Right arabesque ends below "T" of "OSTAFRIKA" © Jean Elsen & ses Fils s.a. Late Die Variety (KM#16.2) Obverse: Right arabesque ends below "A" of "OSTAFRIKA" © Leipziger Münzhandlung und Auktion Heidrun Höhn Source John E. Sandrock. A Monetary History of German East Africa