About a month ago I was looking through a coin shop's scrap gold bin when I found a beautiful 1916 T German East Africa 15 Rupien just sitting there. I bought the coin for 650 CAD (370 GBP) and I subbed the coin to PCGS and they just returned the coin to me as Genuine UNC details bent. While the details grade is kinda a heartbreak, for the price I paid I still scored a very rare and highly coveted gold coin with a rich history.
In 1916 during the height of the Great War, in order to pay for the local Askaris troops under the legendary general Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (seriously read his story, it is amazing), it was decided to mint a gold coin. This was made possible by the establishment of a temporary mint in a train carriage in Tabora, Tanzania and the gold was sourced from a local gold mine still in operation. The coin was minted under siege conditions as the British was attacking Tabora at the time, and after the capitulation of Tabora the coins quickly disappeared as they were soon perceived as valuable.
These coins, also known as Tabora Pound, has a elephant in the reverse and the date 1916. The T mint mark is for Tabora and the obverse shows a crudely made German Empire Eagle with the legends Deutsche Ostafrika (German East Africa) and the denomination (15 Rupien).