The discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand in 1885 turned the South African Republic from an impoverished state dominated by farmers to one where fortunes could be made from mining. In 1892 President Kruger, facing an election campaign, ordered the building of a mint and the striking of the republic's first full coinage series. The government, which contained a number of Hollanders and Germans, debated whether to base the Republic's coinage on the British coinage or whether to introduce a decimal coinage. Eventually it was decided to adopt the British coinage system as the basis of the Republic's system.