First Coinage of the Republic of South Africa

[<k>]

The silver 10 cents coin replaced the predecimal shilling.

The first shilling contained the reverse design within a circle, but then that circle was removed.

For some unknown reason, the Pole Star was removed from the design when it was transferred to the 10 cents coin.

[<k>]

1 rand, 1968.




2 rand, 1963.

From Wikipedia:

Two bullion coins, with denominations of 1 rand and 2 rand, were also issued. These replaced the gold half-pound and pound coins introduced in 1952. Both the pound and the rand gold coins matched the specifications of the British half-sovereign and sovereign (minted, among others, at the Pretoria branch mint until 1932), including the gold alloy (crown gold) with a fineness of 22 carat (91.67%). The reverse of the gold rand coins featured the well-known springbok illustration designed by Coert Steynberg for the 5-shilling coin introduced in 1948. They were minted from 1961 to 1983.

[<k>]

See also:

Coinage of the Union of South Africa.

Paul Kruger and the coinage of the South African Republic.

South Africa: Unadopted designs by Kruger-Gray.

[onecenter]

I always found the decimal gold coins interesting in that the currency symbol "R" was placed after the numeral instead of before.

[<k>]

I do believe that is done with some other coins and currencies. It would be interesting to compile a list of them some day.

[<k>]

It's interesting that the 1961 to 1964 coinage, shown here, used two brass coins, the ½ cent and the 1 cent. The previous set, the predecimal coinage, contained no brass coins, nor did the new coin series that followed in 1965. Some of the coins issued since 1990 look yellow to my eye, but apparently they are not brass but bronze-plated. It's a puzzle to me how they manage to make bronze look yellow.

The other unusual feature of this set was the inclusion of a 2½ cents coin, rather than 2 cents. Apparently it was a replacement for the threepence coin, since the two were of equivalent value. This is another example of a decimal set that looks back to the predecimal set, rather than thinking in decimal terms. Denominations ending in a half do not fit well into a decimal set, nor do such coins generally prove to be popular with the public. The next coin series, initiated in 1965, included a 2c coin but no 2½c denomination. I wonder for how long the 2½ cents coin remained legal tender, or circulated, after 1964. Does anybody know? Also, given that the coins of the 1961 to 1964 set were generally significantly larger and heavier than the coins that followed, I wonder how long they circulated after 1964. Again, does anybody know the answer to these questions?

[<k>]

The other interesting point is that this was South Africa's first decimal coinage. Former British dominions and colonies that decimalised their coinage usually took one of two different approaches: countries such as New Zealand used entirely new designs for their decimal coinage but included some familiar themes - in New Zealand's case, the kiwi - to give a sense of continuity with the former coinage; other countries, such as Ireland and South Africa, used designs from the predecimal coinage if the monetary value of the old and new coins matched, but they added new designs when the decimal denominations had no predecimal counterpart. In South Africa's case, this worked well, and the 1961 to 1964 designs cohere very well as a set. Ireland, on the other hand, ended up using two very different styles of designs for its coinage: it retained Percy Metcalfe's "barnyard" designs for the 5p, 10p and 50p but used ornamental medieval birds for the ½p, 1p and 2p coins. Nobody can tell me that the two parts of the Irish decimal set cohered, style-wise; there are of course people who still like the set, and the ½p, 1p and 2p designs in particular, but that is an entirely different matter. See: Ireland's hybrid decimal design series.

[<k>]

Here is a table showing the weight of the coins in grams and their diameter and thickness in centimetres.

Value	Weight	Diameter	Thickness
½c	5.7	25.6	1.8
1c	9.58	31	2
2½c	1.41	16.3	0.96
5c	2.83	19.35	1.4
10c	5.66	23.7	1.8
20c	11.31	28.7	2.39
50c	28.28	38.8	3.04

This was quite a large and heavy set.

Many of the dimensions were based on those of their predecimal counterparts.

[<k>]

From a design point of view, all the designs of this set had been used before, with the exception of the Voortrekker wagon and the portrait of Jan van Riebeeck. The two designs, fine as they are, lasted only four years, then: from 1961 to 1964. The Voortrekker wagon was a specifically Afrikaner symbol, of course, so perhaps it was omitted in future years in order to make the designs more inclusive - at least, for those of European descent.

The inclusion of the springbok design on the 50 cents, instead of the crowned coat of arms, was a nice move, since the 20 cents already showed the uncrowned coat of arms, so some repetition of design was avoided. However, the appearance of the protea design on both the 2½ cents and 5 cents coins, echoing their repetition on the predecimal set (3d and 6d), could have been avoided with a little imagination.

[<k>]

See also:

1] Paul Kruger and the coinage of the South African Republic.

2] Coinage of the Union of South Africa.

3] Second Coinage of the Republic of South Africa.

4] Third Coinage of the Republic of South Africa.

5] Numismatic changes in the new South Africa.

6] South Africa: design continuity.

7] South Africa: springbok design sketches by Coert Steynberg.