Banknotes

Mosenthal Brothers, £5, 12 November 1857, serial number 180, printed Rowe, Kentish & Co. London, manuscript signature of Adolph Mosenthal at right, backed on card but watermark clearly visible in places, overall very good and exceptionally rare, the only other record of sale being at DNW in 2010, which was serial number 189, only 9 away from this example!
Pick unlisted, Hern 253 £2,000-£2,600

The Mosenthal Brothers were Joseph, Adolph and Julius, three German Jews who emigrated to Cape Town in around 1839. They were highly successful businessmen who operated throughout the 19th Century, and whose business outlived them well into the 20th. These notes were issued for a very short time, from 1854 until 1860, and are some of the earliest of all known South African notes.