Local coin dealer Investgold may trade in gold coins bearing former president Nelson Mandela’s image for the next six months, the company said in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
This follows months of negotiations between Investgold and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, after the Pretoria High Court granted an interdict in December prohibiting the coin dealer from importing and selling the coin bearing Mandela’s image and name.
”We are pleased to announce that a settlement has been reached that will allow Investgold to continue the exclusive, worldwide contract relating to the importing, marketing and trading in president Mandela gold coins,” Investgold general manager Paul Blundell-Gibson told reporters.
Investgold has agreed to hand over a percentage of the sales of the coins to the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The company will only be able to trade in the coins for the next six months, and after that it has undertaken never to import any items relating to Mandela again, Blundell-Gibson said.
”It is highly unlikely that there will ever be another official Nelson Mandela gold coin,” he said. ”The foundation will not sign another agreement to allow it.”
Investgold imports the 24-carat Mandela ”A better life for all” coins from Pobjoy Mint Britain.
Investgold director Gerrit Schwartz said the company did not realise it was doing anything wrong by selling the coins in South Africa.
”We learnt the hard way last year that just because they had the right to sell the coins overseas, didn’t mean we had the rights to sell it here,” he said.
He said that six years before Investgold was set up, coins bearing Mandela’s image were being ”freely traded”, and it was ”never an issue”.
The agreement is only applicable to South Africa.
”Private mints overseas could mint the coins, at their own risk,” said Schwartz. However, various foundations around the world are monitoring the use and abuse of Mandela’s image.
Blundell-Gibson said Investgold has not tarnished Mandela’s image.
”We don’t feel we’ve … Disney-ised Mandela ever. Our adverts never used pictures of him, only of our products.”
In the high court case, Mandela’s lawyers argued that the use of the words ”Nelson Mandela” and his image on the coins was an infringement of his rights.
Investgold, however, said it had an agreement with the foundation.
The court held that the personality rights of famous people cannot be transferred away from that person.
In November last year, Investgold agreed to abandon a telephone number using Mandela’s prisoner number, 46664, and handed it over to the foundation. — Sapa