Jardines Galleries · Before sterling · 1652 – 1825 · 173 years · Four regimes
Early Colonial Currency.
The chaotic monetary history of the Cape — from barter with the Khoikhoi to the introduction of sterling in 1825. The library's three-era backbone (ZAR 1892 – 1902 → Union 1923 – 1960 → Decimal 1961 – present) all postdates 1825. This page is the prologue: 173 years before the first systematic colonial coinage, when the Cape ran on Dutch guilders, Spanish reales, copper barter, paper crisis money, and — for one extraordinary moment in 1806 — over thirty different coin types circulating simultaneously.
Chaos to coherence
173 years · Four monetary regimes · Resolution in 1825The Cape's monetary history before sterling reads as four distinct regimes stacked on top of each other: VOC barter and Dutch coinage (143 years), British paper-only crisis (8 years), Batavian rixdollar issues (3 years), and finally British return with sterling resolution (1806 – 1825).
By 1806 the colony was operating with more than thirty coin types in simultaneous circulation — Spanish, Portuguese, Indian, Venetian, Dutch, and British gold and silver, plus copper at fractional values. The 1825 sterling proclamation ended the chaos.
The dubbeltjie carryover
1795 copper penny → modern 10c · 230+ yearsDuring the 1795 – 1803 British paper-only crisis, the copper penny in circulation became known as the dubbeltjie — Afrikaans for "two stivers", the value pairing it represented. The currency vanished by 1825; the word did not.
Modern South African English still uses "dubbeltjie" as colloquial slang for the 10c piece — 230 years after the coin it described stopped circulating. The parallel survival of "tickey" from the threepence ties the prologue to the post-1961 decimal era.
Four regimes
VOC · First British · Batavian · Sterling resolution · 1652 → 1825The 173 years before sterling divide cleanly into four monetary regimes. Each marks a different occupying power or political situation; each brought its own coinage and currency conventions to the Cape. The result is a numismatic period unlike any other in South African history — not one currency system slowly evolving, but four distinct ones successively imposed.
Dutch VOC period
The longest of the four regimes at 143 years. The Cape under the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) ran initially on barter with the Khoikhoi — copper, iron, tobacco, beads. Dutch coins (guilder, stuiver, duit) and Spanish reales circulated as the colony grew. The first coin specifically produced for the Cape was the 1782 VOC duit, struck in the Netherlands with the VOC monogram.
First British occupation
An extraordinary monetary moment: the colony held £258,255 in paper money and no metallic coin at all. A 1797 proclamation fixed exchange values for guineas, dollars, rupees, and dozens of other foreign coins entering the Cape via trade. The copper penny that did circulate became known as the "dubbeltjie" (two stivers) — a name that survives today for the 10c piece.
Batavian Republic
The Dutch returned briefly, issuing 150,000 rixdollars in paper. The regime lasted only three years before British re-occupation. The 1806 proclamation (issued after the second British takeover) became the most extraordinary numismatic document of the era — listing dozens of gold, silver, and copper coins with their values in rixdollars. A fascinating snapshot of global trade, expanded in the ledger below.
Introduction of sterling
The 1825 Imperial order-in-council introduced sterling at 1s 6d per rixdollar. British silver and copper gradually replaced the motley collection of foreign coins. The chaos of the previous 173 years resolved into a single coherent monetary system — the prologue to the SA pound symbol's evolution and ultimately to the Union era a century later.
The 1806 proclamation
A snapshot of global trade · Thirty-plus coin types in circulationThe 1806 proclamation — issued after the second British re-occupation of the Cape — formally listed the exchange values of every coin then circulating, fixed in rixdollars. The ledger reads as a map of early-19th-century global trade: gold from Britain, India, Brazil, and Venice; silver from across Europe; copper from the Cape itself. Thirty-plus coin types in simultaneous use.
Guineas from Britain · Mohurs from India · Johannes from Portugal · Doubloons from Spain · Venetian Sequins from the Italian trade routes.
Rupees from India · Ducatons from the Netherlands · Guilders from Dutch trade · Shillings from Britain · Sixpence in fractional silver.
Pennies at the rate of 1/12 rixdollar. The lowest-value circulating coinage — the working currency of the Cape's daily transactions, including the dubbeltjie.
Library cross-references
The sequel · The successor era · Cultural carryover · ReferencesPre-1921 Banknotes
What came after sterling. Colonial bank issues, private bank notes, and government paper from the 1825 sterling proclamation through to the formation of the South African Reserve Bank.
— The currency that succeeded the rixdollar —The SA Pound Symbol
The £ symbol that arrived in 1825 as part of the sterling proclamation. Its evolution across Union and into the 1961 decimal transition closes the loop on the chaos resolved in 1825.
— Where the dubbeltjie lives now —Decimal Coinage
The era where "dubbeltjie" still survives as colloquial slang for the 10c piece. The 230-year word-carryover from the 1795 colonial copper penny lives in the modern decimal era — the same way the tickey carried over from threepence.
— References —Bibliography & Further Reading
Including Strombom 1962 on the 1806 proclamation, Hern's Standard Catalogue for the post-1825 coinage that followed, and the historical works covering this pre-sterling era.
Sources
Primary documentation · Standard catalogue · Reference summaries- Strombom, I. "The Proclamation of 19 April 1806." South African Numismatic Journal, 1962. The specialist work on the 1806 proclamation and the coin-class system it documented.
- Hern, Brian. Standard Catalogue of South African Coins. Covers post-1825 SA coinage; the pre-1825 era is summarised in the introductory historical sections.
- Wikipedia: South African pound. General historical overview useful for the broader monetary-history context.