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Details:
1965 Afrikaans 1 Cent - Diameter: 19.05mm Mass: 3.00gm Thickness: 1.57mm
Description:
A revised coinage series was introduced for 1965.
Denominations included 1⁄2, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents. Silver was replaced
in coins by cupronickel.
Initially, the coinage bore the portrait of Van Riebeeck, and later the state presidents or the South African coat of arms. The country name was given in Afrikaans, English or both. The sparrows depicted on the 1 c coin of 1965 are Cape Sparrows. Their distribution is confined to South Africa and Namibia. The story of the origin of the sparrows on the 1 cent coin has been told in a number of texts. Although difficult to verify using written historical records, the use of the sparrows apparently has its origins during the South African War of 1899 to 1902. The conditions in the concentration camps were so harsh and the women and children detained in these camps had a continuous battle for survival. After the war, some of the survivors visited the farm of the Free State President M T Steyn, Onze Rust, near Bloemfontein. There they lobbied Mrs Steyn that if South Africa ever minted its own coins, the two sparrows should appear on the smallest denomination coin in remembrance of victims and survivors of the concentration camps. The person assumed to have suggested the sparrow design to Mrs Steyn was Jacoba Marais from the farm Vlakfontein near Bloemfontein, referring to the biblical sparrows in a verse taken from the Dutch Bibles of the time, Matthew10:29. The verse read as follows, " Worden niet twee musjes om een penningsken verkocht? En niet een van deze zal op de aarde vallen zonder uw Vader." The general English translation from the Dutch would be " Will not two sparrows be sold for a penny? And none of these will fall on the earth without your Father."
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