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The rand was established as the official South African currency on 14 February 1961 – and has since developed into a liquid emerging market currency, most commonly traded against the US dollar.
Prior to its establishment as legal tender, South Africa, as a British colony, operated under the British tender of pounds, shillings, pence.
When the rand debuted, it traded at R 2 to the pound, or 10 shillings to the rand. Coming off of the strong base of the “South African Pound” the rand currency was valued, as a yearly average, stronger than the US dollar, debuting at 72 cents to the dollar in 1961.
The Union of South Africa issued coins from 1923, in denominations of ¼, ½, 1, 3 and 6 pence, 1, 2 (initially denominated as a florin) and 2½ shillings, ½ and 1 sovereign. The coins were the same weights as the corresponding British coins but the silver coins (3 pence up to 2½ shillings) were struck in .800 fineness silver. Gold coins were struck until 1932.
In 1947, 5 shilling coins were introduced, with occasional commemorative variants. In 1951, the silver coinage switched to .500 fineness. Gold bullion ½ and 1 pound coins were issued from 1952 in the same specifications as the ½ and 1 sovereign.
All the coins had the British monarch on the obverse, with the titles in Latin, while the reverse had the denomination and "South Africa" written in English and Afrikaans.Source:Wikipedia
Up to 1960, South Africa used the British system of 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound (240 pennies to the pound). This coinage system dominated South Africa for more than a century as Lord Charles Somerset issued an ordinance as far back as 6 June 1825 declaring British Sterling as legal tender at the Cape (Arndt, 1928). This was part of a process to introduce a uniform monetary system for the British Colonies at the time. A shortage of coins nevertheless delayed this process for several years, but after 1848, only coins of the Sterling series were accepted. These coins became firmly entrenched throughout the whole of South Africa and even the Kruger coins, minted in the Transvaal Republic during 1892 to 1900, conformed to the British system (Engelbrecht, 1987).Source: Francois Malan
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