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1961 to date |
| First Decimal Issue - 1961 to 1964 |
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In the years 1956 to 1958 the Decimalisation Coin Commission investigated decimalisation of the South African currency. Its recommendations were accepted in the Decimalisation Coin Act of 1959. Initially only banks and businesses which had no problems with cash registers and accounting machines changed, whilst other businesses gradually changed cash registers from pounds, shillings and pence. |
| Various patterns were struck as different proposals were considered. It was decided units should be 100 divisible. Therefore one pound became two rand, one shilling became ten cents, three pence became two and a half cents etc. Coins remained the same for the period 1961 to 1964 except that values changed as mentioned. The portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was replaced by that of Jan van Riebeeck. Notwithstanding the public's long association with pounds, shillings and pence, the changeover was soon accepted and occurred with practically no dislocation of the country's business transactions. |
| A substantial quantity of two and a half cent coins were struck in 1961. With the increase in the cover price of newspapers, the demand for this coin decreased and smaller quantities were struck until 1964 when it was replace with a 2c coin in 1965. |
| The increasing price of silver necessitated investigation for coins in a different metal. This led to the SA Coin Act of 1964 with approval for the minting of coins in nickel in seven denominations with new, different designs from 1965. |
| The lowest denomination South African coin has two sparrows on it after the biblical verse Matthew 10:29: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ...". This has been the case since 1923 on the 1/4d, 1961 on the 1/2c and since 1965 on the 1c. |
| With the discontinuation of the 1c and 2c in 2002 it will be interesting to see if this tradition will be continued on the current lowest denomination - the 5c coin - or whether a limited edition 1c coin is issued for collectors. |
| Second Decimal Issue - 1965 to 1990 |
| In 1962 it was announced that a change in the size, design and metal content of coins was being considered. This was primarily due to the increase in the price of silver. Various patterns were struck for consideration by the parliamentary committee investigating this as the increased use of coin automation machines required long term use of the coin types chosen. |
| Circulation coins were decided on as listed in the following pages. Due to the short life span of the R1 notes in circulation these were replaced by a nickel R1 from 1977. Due to requests from collectors and Numismatic Societies a silver R1 of 80% silver was minted for proof sets from 1965 and later also for circulation. These coins can be differentiated from the nickel R1 by their larger size and weight. Although they did circulate in 1966, 1967 and 1969 the silver R1 coins are regarded as a collectors series and are listed in that section later in the catalogue. |
| From 1965 to 1969 coins had either the Afrikaans wording "Suid Afrika" or English wording "South Africa". The three rarities of this series is the 1965 R1 Afr, 1965 50c Eng, 1965 1c Afr. Some coins of the period 1965 to 1969 were struck only for sets and are generally not found in circulation. |
| In 1970 Jan van Riebeeck was replaced by the Coat of Arms and coins were made bilingual. Half cent coins were again struck from 1970 and to discourage hoarding were all struck with this date other than for proof sets. Due to the high cost of production and subsequent lack of demand they were discontinued from 1983. The effigy of presidents of South Africa were placed on different denominations in the year subsequent to their retirement from office. |
| Due to the increase in the price of nickel in the late 1980's a new coin series had to be investigated. The intrinsic value of a 5 cent coin was well in excess of its face value and the cost of production made the other values uneconomical to produce. In 1989 there were only 58 261 blanks left for the 5 cent coin, of which 22 721 were used for sets and the balance dated 1989 and sold to collectors at R1 each. For this reason they are not generally found in circulation. |
| 1989 is the last proof and mint sets issued of this series. As there were still blanks remaining of the 2c, 20c, 50c and R1 the balance of these were minted and issued dated 1990. |
| New Series - 1989 to date |
| In planning this series consideration was given to the weight of larger coins as change as well as logical increments in size and value. Banknotes were to be issued in denominations 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 rand. The two and five rand notes would therefore be replaced by coins. The logical increments decided on were 1c, 2c, 5c copper plated, 10c 20c, 50c brass plated, R1, R2, R5 nickel plated - with increases in size within each grouping. This system has been studied with keen interest by many overseas countries which have illogical sizes and shapes relative to face value. |
| The R2 coins were issued first dated 1989. In 1990 the 1c, 5c, 10c and R2 were also minted for circulation. An unfounded rumour started that gold had accidentally spilled in the 1990 10c issues, with the public clamouring for these coins. This of course was totally unfounded. However the SA Mint, which was busy relocating to new premises in Midrand from Pretoria as well as banks and dealers were driven to frustration by the thousands of phone calls from the public. Of late a similar rumour has surfaced regarding rarity of the inauguration R5 coin struck for circulation which again is totally unfounded as over 10 million coins were issued. |
| The new series 1990 2c, 20c 50c and R1 are however scarce as they were not issued for circulation and only issued in sets. As parking meters were being revamped to take the new series and old series of coin, they could for a period only be used with the old series 20c coin. In 1991 therefore the balance of the new series coins were issued except for the 20c, which was only in sets, and only from 1992 was the full series in circulation. |
| In 1994 as the R5 banknotes were withdrawn from circulation they wee replaced by the R5 coin. An additional R5 coin not included in sets was minted for circulation to commemorate the presidential inauguration. |
| Some coinage of the old series still circulates with the new series but is gradually being withdrawn and implementation of the new series is now virtually complete. The S.A. Mint, as in previous years, does the minting of coins for various countries as well as other supplementary work such as the manufacture of medals. |
| Mintage of production / circulation coins for later years is reflected as actual sales per denomination rather than mintage per year. The numismatic coins and sets are as issued and sold per year per date issued. |
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