Riviera Principality

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Riviera Principality
	File:Arms Riviera 01.png
Motto: ? Musical Anthem: ?, by ?
Location:	Blenheim, New Zealand
Area claimed:	0.15 km2
Capital:	?
Membership:	< 5
Date of foundation:	1996
Leadership:	MacDonald "Macky" Neame (Prince MacDonald)
Organisational structure:	Constitutional monarchy
Language:	English
Currency:	Riviera Dollar

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I was initially informed that this coin-issuing entity was purportedly a vineyard in Marlborough, a region located in the northeast of the South Island of New Zealand. It was established with the intention of creating the N.Z. equivalent of Australia’s Hutt River Province Principality. During my subsequent research, I exchanged a few e-mails with Mr. Martin L. Purdy, the Editor of the New Zealand Numismatic Journal (published by the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand). He kindly provided me with a copy of Mintmark #199 (September 1999), the publication of the Numismatic Society of Auckland. The article is basically a Text of a Talk given by Tony Butler, who was one of the speakers in the August 1999 meeting of the Society. Mr. Butler begins the article thusly: “There is something rather appealing, to me at least, about the creation of a small, economically self-sufficient territory alongside other, larger countries with their already lengthy chronologies of conquests, monarchies, revolutions, and republics.” He then spends a few paragraphs discussing Lundy and Hutt River Province, his “two favorite examples of this type of initiative”. Afterwards, he provides a very good history of the “vest-pocket size, self-governing Dominion” (to borrow the words of Martin Coles Harman, the founder of Lundy) known as the Riviera Principality. “Just over 13 years ago in 1986, Macky and Jillian Neame settled with their family of three on 38 acres of land at Morgan’s Road, roughly 5 km east of Blenheim. Some 8 years later (1994), Neame applied for and obtained planning consent for a $1.5 million tourist attraction complex. A publicity folder, distributed in the name of ‘Prince MacDonald’, includes the layout of a village comprising a market centre, boutique brewery, wine shop, conference centre and tavern. Future developments included a circus, a Gingerbread House, an Old-Lady-In-the-Shoe sweet shop, and another place, The Beehive, selling various types of honey (and maybe humbugs to the electorate). Construction of Riviera’s own church was to begin in November/December 1996 and this would be available for people of all denominations to worship and marry. The folder does not mention a casino but, in such a heady Disneyland atmosphere, HRH Prince MacDonald must surely have considered including this Las Vegas style attraction. At all events his entrepreneurial vision by now anticipated the day when Riviera would have its own airport catering for direct flights from Wellington, Christchurch, and private charters. A heli-pad was also planned.” To show that the Prince (and Commander-in-Chief) established some formal protocol intended for tourists, Mr. Butler quotes the previously mentioned printed advertisement: “To enter Riviera, you will be issued with an entry visa. Your own passport can also be stamped to say you have visited the smallest country in the world. Each entry visa is valid for 180 days.” For the privilege of setting foot in this “magical place”, adults were to pay $8 and the price of admission for children was $4. Furthermore, the Bank of Riviera would exchange the foreign currency of its visitors for the Principality’s own special currency ($1RP = $1NZ), which was intended for actual use in Riviera or could be saved for one’s personal collection. At the Riviera Post Office, which offered its own postage stamps to philatelists, visitors could send postcards and letters (not to mention gifts purchased at the village) to their friends and family. Mr. Butler also briefly examines the Principality’s modest coat-of-arms “because some of its elements will feature on the reverse side of the Riviera coinage.” Visually, it is “unique to Riviera but also related to the Marlborough Province.” The official flag, “with its seven horizontal stripes and top left hand cluster of stars, would seem to be a pirated version of the US Old Glory.” Mr. Butler also provides an epilogue to the story: “Sadly, the Riviera Principality no longer exists as such, having failed to overcome a number of obstacles in the way of Macky Neame’s ambitious project. Its failure is hard to understand in view of its many assets and advantages: the increasing popularity of the wine trail and Marlborough’s vineyards; the advent of the fast ferries; the range of facilities offered by Riviera to potential tourists; the varied architecture of its shops, mixing Mediterranean and art deco styles with phoenix palms and Italian street lamps in the market place; and finally the quaintness of this Never Never Land, despite its commercial overtones. It would seem that, notwithstanding an initial outlay of $1.5 million, Macky Neame may have overreached himself.” In February of 1996, the grand opening of the Principality “had been set to coincide with the Marlborough Wine and Food Festival, but the village had remained closed.” In July, “after a number of delays caused by bad weather, a 13-month wait for a liquor license etc., the Principality narrowly avoided being wound up for the relatively insignificant debt of $7500.” Finally, on December 18th, “the Principality of Riviera opened its doors to the public, with the formal inauguration planned for the following year. Unfortunately, however, this was too late to save the project and the property was offered for tender, to close on 27 March 1998. The new owner, a local developer, acquired the Principality for considerably less than the cost of construction. He ‘intends to turn the lavishly decorated tavern into a function centre for weddings and events. The other buildings, formerly shops, will become accommodation facilities once the appropriate consents have been obtained’ — Marlborough Express, 10/3/99.” Mr. Purdy also e-mailed me a copy of another article, written by Keith Gottermeyer, from issue Number 21 (March 1996) of the RNSNZ Newsletter (“The Society's Newsletter exists in parallel to the NZNJ, and tends to be a general round-up of current items of interest and Society news, whereas the Journal is intended as a more permanent record of research and the like”). Though Mr. Gottermeyer does not offer any information that tops Mr. Butler’s extremely thorough article, this particular phrase stands out: “Once your special Riviera passport is stamped at the border gates one is free to wander amid the Mediterranean-style buildings” and “lunch at the ‘royal’ cafe”. It then mentions that plans were indeed underway for several types of novelty shops, including “a sheep shop with woolen garments”, which was not mentioned in Mr. Butler’s article. Thanks to a numismatist named Mr. Donald F. Ion, I also received a bit of additional information about the Principality: namely, one of Macky Neame’s special leaflets containing a few brief descriptive paragraphs about the “unique treasure” that was his domain. I’ll quote a significant portion of it, since it appears to possibly have been one of the original sources used by Mr. Butler and Mr. Gottermeyer: “Whether you are passing through or staying in Marlborough…Riviera is a must see for all ages. The tiny principality is surrounded by lush green farmland, distant hills and crowned by clear blue skies…Visitors will need an Entry Visa to cross the Riviera/Marlborough border and once inside can purchase gifts at the quaint shops with Riviera’s own currency. Wine and beer connoisseurs can sample the different beverages of neighbouring regions along with the country’s own brews. The Principality also has a fully licensed cafe catering for that leisurely lunch or the traveller restricted by time. If visitors wish to try other activities such as the river cruise, Riviera taxi ride and novelty boot-bike rides, the Riviera Visitors Bureau will be only too happy to organise these activities.” As for the coinage issued by the short-lived Principality (“specimens of which have not been easy to obtain”, in the words of Mr. Butler), they all bear “Prince MacDonald’s effigy” on the obverse and the legend “The Smallest Country in the World” on the reverse. The denominations, all dated 1996, are: “Five Cents” (also featuring an American-style flag on the reverse), “Ten Cents” (same flag), “Twenty Cents” (same flag), “Fifty Cents” (same flag), “One Dollar” (featuring an American-style, spread-winged eagle), and “Two Dollars” (featuring a crown). Mr. Butler states that the Marlborough Express also refers to a $3 piece which “is missing from my set.” In my efforts to obtain at least one of these coins, I contacted a slew of Kiwi numismatists. One of them was Mr. John Rabarts. After several months, he was finally able to track some down: “I come to Blenheim every month for a weekend and have been asking locals about the Riviera enterprise. A couple had heard about it but no idea where or who was responsible. Then…I asked a person in an antique shop who I knew had been around in the trade for many years. He not only knew about Riviera, but was able to give me the name and phone number of the person to contact.” This man turned out to be the one and only Macky Neame, who still had some of the Principality’s coinage in his possession. Luckily, he was willing to sell Mr. Rabarts a portion of his remaining stock, which he kept in “secure storage”. Along with the standard set of 6 “tender coins” (“They are the same denominations as the NZ currency of the time”), I also received a special undenominated silver piece. It has the same obverse as all the others, but its unique reverse features the Principality's coat-of-arms. “The silver commemorative is elusive because only 50 were minted and less than 10 of those have been released. The one I obtained for you…is the first released in a few years. He let me have it on the understanding that it is going to a ‘genuine collector’, not a speculator.” The purported $3 coin simply does not exist. The “Bank of Riviera” has also printed a set of 5 banknotes (3, 5, 10, 20, 50 Dollars). “They have gold printing on them to prevent forgery by color copying or scanning and printing.” Mr. Rabarts and Mr. Ion also learned a little bit more from Mr. Neame about the Principality: “He mentioned some other activities he undertook in the process of trying to validate what he was doing. e.g. he mentions writing to the queen (of England) and receiving a reply of some kind. Also a supporting letter from the NZ consul [Ann Worthington] for Prince Leonard of Hutt River Province (Western Australia).” The recognition of the Riviera Principality by Hutt River Province was officially commemorated on a couple of Riviera’s philatelic First Day Covers dated January 6th, 1997. On account of the correspondence between Mr. Rabarts and Mr. Neame, some of these documents were temporarily rescued from storage (and I was later able to view a few photocopies). In addition to opening day, another important milestone for the Principality was something called “Declaration of Independence Day”, which occurred on January 1st, 1998 (also commemorated with a couple of FDCs). Incidentally, Mr. Neame still lives and works (with his wife and family) on the same road, on a modest portion of the once-spacious property. You see, the entire area covered by the world’s “Smallest Country” was originally made up of three separate “land titles”. Two of these — they included the part of the land upon which the Post Office, the Bank and other facilities stood — had recently gone on the market again, yet at least one of these parcels is still “under dispute as Mackie spent over $1,000,000 developing” the land. Fortunately, the third parcel still belongs to Macky. Thus, even though most of the land belongs to new owners, a portion of it remains in Mr. Neame’s hands “so technically there is still a physical existence of the principality.” In light of all the stressful/strenuous efforts taken by Mr. Rabarts on my behalf, I was relieved to hear from him that “I certainly enjoyed the experience of tracking down the retired prince of Riviera Principality.” Images of the coinage of the Riviera Principality can be viewed at the Web-site of Mr. Jorge Fernández Vidal: http://www.jfvcoins.com/Productos/micronations_english=catOS.html

References

• patent for fence post support by MacDonald Neame.

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