Stoltenhoff Island is a now uninhabited island that is governed by Tristan da Cuhna.  It is named after the brothers Gustav and Friedrich Stoltenhoff who unsuccessfully tried to settle the island between 1871 and 1873.  Tristan da Cuhna recently released the first coins ever issued for the island.  The set of eight legal-tender coins for Stoltenhoff Island was struck by the Commonwealth Mint.  The obverse of each coin features Queen Elizabeth. Various sailing ships and boats associated with Tristan da Cuhna and Stoltenhof Island are on the reverse.  Due to its isolation in the South Atlantic, Ships played a major roll in the life of Tristan da Cuhna group. Included in the Eight coin set is a 39mm copper-nickel 1 Crown, bimetallic 25 Pence, brass 20 pence, copper-nickel 10 and 5 pence and bronze 2, 1, and 1/2 Pence, all dated 2008.  The coins are Uncirculated though most coins have some minor bagmarks.

SHIPS APPEARING ON STOTENHOFF ISLAND COINS:

Half Penny:
West Riding Tragedy Longboat
In the afternoon of November 27th 1885 the island's worst ever recorded disaster happened when the iron barque West Riding called at Tristan for water. Following the failure of the potato harvest and driven by a great need for provisions, 19 men took to their new life-boat and set out into very rough seas to try and intercept the ship. But just as they approached the West Riding the boat was overcome by a sudden violent squall and sank, drowning all but 4 of its crew.

 
One Penny
Portuguese Ship captained by Tristao da Cunha (Can find no record of its name...)
This ship, a Portuguese Carrack, captained by Tristao da Cunha was part of a 13 ship fleet under the command of Alfonso de Alburquerque, first Viceroy of Portuguese India, on its way from Lisbon to India via the Cape of Good Hope. However, a violent storm dispersed his fleet and da Cunha's ship was blown far south where he came across the islands which still bear his name.


Two Pence
HMS Julia
HM Sloop of War Julia with 95 crew on board becomes the victim of the island's first major tragedy when as a result of a sudden gale she founders on what subsequently became known as the Julia Reef on 2 October 1817 with the loss of 50 officers and men.

Five Pence
HMS Beagle
On 26 March 1824, artist Augustus Earle arrived at the island on board the 'Duke of Gloucester' and "Hoping to be able to add a few interesting drawings to my portfolio, as this was a spot hitherto unvisited by any artist..." was granted permission to spend 1 day ashore painting. Unfortunately, a sudden gale blew up, the Duke of Gloucester was forced out to sea, and his 1 day turned into 8 months during which he was stranded with only his painting equipment and the clothes he stood up in. He was taken in by Governor Glass and his wife and spent his time on the island as clergyman and teacher. He later became famous when he joined Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle as his artist and passed by the islands once again on the leg from Cape Town to St Helena. He painted several canvasses of the island and island life.

 

Ten Pence
Blenden Hall
The 450 tonne East Indiaman on its way to Bombay struck the breakers on the NW side of Inaccessible Island in a dense fog on the 23rd of July 1821. All souls survive, although the master and a sailor were killed on the reefs trying to get to the coast by swimming. The survivors spend several months living in improvised tents eating fish, seabirds and penguins and made a makeshift boat with which the ship's carpenter and nine men sailed to Tristan and returned the next day accompanied by the Governor of Tristan, William Glass in his two boats and by November 12th, all remaining survivors had been taken to Tristan.
 

Twenty Pence
HMS Satellite
This was the brig of war which brought Alexander Cotton of Hull (aka John Taylor), successor to William Glass as the second Governor of Tristan to the island to settle on June 21, 1821 along with John Mooney and deserting sailor Kenneth McIntosh.


Twenty-five Pence
Iron Barque West Riding
This was the ship which on its way from Bristol to Sydney, Australia called at Tristan for fresh water and became caught up in the worst disaster in the island's recorded history, when 15 men perished trying to get to the West Riding in search of desperately needed provisions for the starving islanders.

 

One Crown
L'Heure du Berger
This was the first ship to survey the group of 5 islands in the Tristan archipelago. Soundings were taken and a rough survey of the coastline was made. Notes were made of evidence of fresh water on the island by the presence of a large waterfall, Big Watron and a lake on the north coast. The results of the survey were published by Royal Navy Hydrographer A. Dalrymple in 1781.