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Coin History of South Africa
The Rand is the currency of
South Africa. It takes its name from the
Witwatersrand (White-waters-ridge in
English), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is
built and where most of South Africa's gold
deposits were found. The rand has the symbol "R"
and is subdivided into 100 cents, symbol
"c". The ISO 4217 code is ZAR.
The rand is the currency of
the Common Monetary Area between South Africa,
Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho.
History
The rand was introduced in
1961, coinciding with the establishment of the
Republic of South Africa. It replaced the South
African pound as legal tender, at the rate of 2
rand = 1 pound or 10 shillings to the rand.
Coins were introduced in
1961 in denominations of ½, 1, 2½, 5, 10, 20 and
50 cents. In 1965, 2 cents coins replaced the 2½
cents. The ½ cent coin was last struck for
circulation in 1973. 1 rand coins were
introduced in 1977, followed by 2 and 5 rand
pieces in 1989 and 1990, respectively. The 1 and
2 cents coins were discontinued in April 2002,
primarily due to inflation having devalued them.
All prices are now rounded to the nearest 5
cents. In an effort to curb counterfeiting, a
new R5 coin was released in August 2004.
Krugerrand
The Krugerrand is a South
African gold coin, first minted in 1967 in order
to help market South African gold. The coins
have legal tender status in South Africa but are
not actually intended to be used as currency,
which is a reason it is regarded as being one of
the world's medal-coins.
It was the first bullion
coin to be tenderable at the market value of its
face gold content; by contrast, earlier gold
coins such as the gold sovereign had a tender
value in currency engraved on their face, which
could be completely divorced from their market
value. The Krugerrand was the first gold coin to
contain precisely one ounce of fine gold, and
was intended from the moment of creation to
provide a vehicle for the private ownership of
gold. By bestowing legal tender status upon the
coin, Krugerrands could be owned by citizens of
the United States, which at that time prohibited
private ownership of bullion but allowed
ownership of foreign coins. However, due to the
policy of apartheid in South Africa, the
Krugerrand was declared illegal to import in
many Western countries during the 1970s and
1980s until that system was lifted between 1990
and 1994.
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