Jardines Galleries · Chronology
The Historical Timeline of South African Coinage.
A chronological journey from pre-colonial barter on the Cape to the 2023 polymer notes — eight eras, four currency systems, and the events, mints, and coins that shaped the country's money. Every dated entry is anchored to its source.
The 1899 Single 9 Pond
One known specimenThe most famous coin in South African numismatics. With the Anglo-Boer War cutting Pretoria off from its Berlin die supplier, the ZAR mint took an existing 1898 pond die and punched a single "9" over the "8" as an emergency measure. Just one coin was struck before the design was abandoned.
The Single 9 has passed through a small number of celebrated cabinets and remains the highest-priced South African coin ever sold at auction — a one-line monument to the political crisis that ended the Republic.
The 1967 Krugerrand
First modern bullion coinThe world's first modern gold bullion coin, designed to market South African gold on the international market. Its obverse — Otto Schultz's 1892 portrait of Paul Kruger — and its reverse — Coert Steynberg's springbok — link the coin directly back to the ZAR era.
More than 49 million ounces have been sold since launch, making the Krugerrand the most widely held bullion coin in private hands worldwide. Silver and platinum variants followed in the 2010s.
Pre-Colonial
Long before European arrival, the southern African economy ran on exchange goods, not coin. There was no indigenous striking tradition; value moved through cattle, beads, iron implements, and the Katanga crosses — X-shaped copper ingots traded down from Central Africa.
The numismatic record of the country effectively begins with the European foothold at the Cape in 1652. Everything before is the prehistory of money in southern Africa — important context, but not a coinage tradition in the technical sense.
The Dutch East India Company
The first European settlers arrived in 1652 under Jan van Riebeeck, bringing Dutch guilders, stuivers, and duiten. Spanish reales — the famous pieces of eight — circulated alongside them as the international trade currency of the day.
Van Riebeeck arrives at the Cape
The first VOC settlement is established at Table Bay. Dutch silver and copper coinage becomes the de-facto currency of the Cape, supplemented by Spanish reales and a constant trickle of foreign coin from passing ships.
The first paper money
The Cape issues its first paper currency in rixdollar and stiver denominations — handwritten notes carrying a government fiscal handstamp. These are the earliest South African banknotes, predating any coinage struck for the territory itself.
First British Occupation & the Batavian Republic
A decade of political turbulence at the Cape: British forces seized the colony in 1795, the Batavian Republic took it back briefly, and the British returned for good in 1806 — bringing with them an attempt to impose order on a chaotic mixed-currency system.
The Baird Proclamation
Under the proclamation of Major-General Sir David Baird, the values of dozens of foreign coins circulating at the Cape were officially fixed. It was the first systematic attempt to bring legal certainty to a currency system that had operated on convention and trust for over a century.
The British Colonial Cape
A century of sterling, private banknotes, and — eventually — the first gold coin struck for any entity that would become part of South Africa. The "free banking" era left a legacy of regional paper that survived until the SARB's founding in 1921.
Sterling becomes legal tender
An imperial order-in-council made sterling coinage legal tender in all British colonies. British coins gradually displaced the Dutch currency at the Cape. From 1825 to 1 January 1826, the old paper rijksdaalders were redeemed at 1s 6½d each.
The private banknote era
From the 1830s, numerous private banks issued their own notes. The Cape of Good Hope Bank (1837) was the first. This "free banking" era — with each bank's notes circulating alongside sterling and increasingly diverse foreign issues — lasted until the South African Reserve Bank was established in 1921, ending nearly a century of private currency competition.
The Burgerspond
The first gold coin struck for any entity that later became part of South Africa. A private commission struck at Heaton's Mint, Birmingham, and engraved by Leonard Charles Wyon, in two distinct varieties: "fine beard" (695 coins) and "coarse beard" (142 coins). The Burgerspond is the proto-South-African gold coin — the predecessor in spirit to the Kruger coinage that would follow eighteen years later.
The Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek
After gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand, President Paul Kruger ordered the building of a mint in Pretoria. Impatient to have coins for the upcoming election, the first issues were struck instead at the Royal Prussian Mint in Berlin in 1892 — beginning a brief, dramatic decade that produced the most legendary rarities in South African numismatics.
The Berlin issues
The first Kruger coins are struck at the Berlin Mint by Otto Schultz. Two famous varieties emerge from the very first year:
- Double Shaft (Disselboom): a wagon-design error visible on early dies.
- "O.S." initials: Schultz's signature on early issues caused a political scandal — Afrikaans os meaning "ox" — and the initials were quickly removed. Both varieties are now highly collectible.
The Sammy Marks Tickey
A gold 3d struck with silver dies for industrialist Sammy Marks — only 215 pieces are known to exist. One of the rarest and most desirable South African coins, with an unbroken provenance trail running back through the Levine and Read collections.
The Single 9 Pond
With the Anglo-Boer War interrupting the supply of dies from Berlin, an 1898 die was modified by punching a single "9" over the "8". Only one coin was struck before the project was abandoned. The Single 9 remains the highest-priced South African coin ever sold at auction.
The Veldpond at Pilgrim's Rest
With Pretoria fallen and the war in its final year, an emergency mint was established at Pilgrim's Rest. A former school teacher, P.J. Kloppers, sank the dies — producing a deliberately crude design with a defiant "ZAR" monogram and the denomination "EEN POND". 986 pieces were struck. One die became notched during production, creating the celebrated "slash" variety.
The Kaalponde
Unstruck blanks that escaped the Pretoria Mint during the chaos of the war's final months and circulated at face value. They survive today as a curiosity of the period — a coinage that never quite was.
The Union of South Africa
From the 1910 unification of the four colonies through five decades as a Dominion within the British Empire, the Union period saw the founding of the SARB, the opening of a Royal Mint branch in Pretoria, and South Africa's first sustained run of indigenous coinage — alongside one of the era's defining political dramas: the 1933 abandonment of the gold standard.
The South African Reserve Bank
Founded as the oldest central bank in Africa, the SARB issued its first banknotes on 19 April 1922 — ending the long private-banking era that had defined nineteenth-century Cape and Transvaal currency.
Royal Mint branch opens in Pretoria
South Africa begins issuing its own coins, identical in size and value to British coinage. The denominations: ¼d, ½d, 1d, 3d, 6d, 1/–, 2/– (florin), 2/6, and gold sovereigns with the "SA" mintmark. Notable details:
- George V First Coinage (1923–25/30): the ¼d carries the inscription "¼ PENNY ¼" in 1923–24 only — a one-off variety prized by collectors.
- 1923–1932: gold sovereigns are struck with the "SA" mintmark, contributing to the global Sovereign supply during the inter-war period.
The gold standard crisis
When Britain leaves the gold standard in 1931, South Africa under Hertzog does not follow. The South African pound soars against sterling, crippling the country's gold export economy. By 1933, Hertzog is forced to abandon the gold standard, returning the pound to parity with sterling — one of the most consequential economic decisions in the country's pre-war history.
The South African Mint takes over
The government takes ownership of the Pretoria Mint, renaming it the South African Mint. Coinage continues on the British system, but the operational sovereignty has shifted permanently.
The Crown introduced
The 5/– Crown enters circulation, with occasional commemorative variants — including the 1947 Royal Visit Crown, the first SA coin to feature a design by a South African artist (Coert Steynberg's springbok, later adopted for the Krugerrand reverse).
Republic and the Rand
On 14 February 1961, the Union became a Republic and adopted a decimal currency simultaneously. The pound gave way to the rand — named for the Witwatersrand goldfields — at a rate of R2 = £1, and a new chapter of South African coinage began.
The Rand is introduced
The Decimal Coinage Commission, appointed on 8 August 1956, recommended a decimal system based on the rand. On 14 February 1961, the new currency took effect. Botswana (then Bechuanaland), Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho (Basutoland), and Namibia (South West Africa) all adopted the rand de facto on the same day — the foundation of what would become the Common Monetary Area.
The first decimal series
Coins were converted at face value: £1 → R2, 1/– → 10c, 3d → 2½c. The obverse featured Jan van Riebeeck — a deliberate visual reference back to the founding of the Cape settlement three centuries earlier.
The second decimal series
A redesigned series with several notable variations:
- 1965: the 2½c is replaced by 2c.
- 1965–1969: bilingual varieties — coins were struck with either "Suid Afrika" (Afrikaans) or "South Africa" (English), in alternating years.
- 1970: the Jan van Riebeeck portrait is replaced by the coat of arms — quietly closing the visual link to the Cape's colonial founding.
The first Krugerrand
The world's first modern gold bullion coin enters circulation. Designed to market South African gold internationally, it pairs Otto Schultz's Kruger portrait (1892) with Coert Steynberg's springbok (1947). Over 49 million ounces have since been sold, making it the most widely-held bullion coin in private hands worldwide.
The third decimal series
Smaller, lighter coins introduced as rising metal costs make the older designs uneconomical. Electroplated coins debut in 1989. The bi-metal R5 is launched in 2004 — South Africa's first circulating bi-metal coin and a hedge against the persistent counterfeiting of the older single-metal R5.
Democratic South Africa
The post-1994 era reshaped not just the country's politics but its currency. Mandela banknotes, commemorative issues reaching back into pre-colonial history, the polymer transition, and the retirement of one of the world's longest-serving coining presses all belong to this most recent chapter.
The first democratic election
Nelson Mandela becomes president. Millions of R5 coins bearing his image have since been minted — the most widely-circulating numismatic memorial of his presidency.
The Mandela banknotes
The first South African notes to feature Mandela on the obverse, with the Big Five animals on the reverse. The series — designed under SARB Governor Gill Marcus — replaced the long-running Big Five reverse / Coat of Arms obverse design that had defined the post-1994 paper currency.
The Griqua Town bicentennial R5
A circulation R5 commemorating the 1815 Griqua Town issue — the first autonomous South African coinage. A rare moment of the modern Mint reaching deliberately back into pre-Union numismatic history.
The Silver Krugerrand
Introduced to mark the 50th anniversary of the gold Krugerrand (1967). A platinum variant follows shortly after — extending one of South Africa's most successful numismatic export brands into the silver and platinum bullion markets.
The polymer notes
South Africa issues its first plastic banknotes — polymer R10 and R20 — joining a global migration away from paper that began in Australia in the 1980s. Higher denominations remain on paper for now.
The Oom Paul Press retired
One of the two original 1891 Ludwig Loewe presses — known affectionately as Oom Paul — is retired after 132 years of service. From the very first 1892 Kruger coin to its last commemorative strike, the press operated continuously across two republics, one Union, and one democratic state.
- Wikipedia — Coins of South Africa; Coins of the South African pound; South African pound.
- Rossouw, J. (2020). Diamantjubileum van desimalisasie. Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe.
- South African Reserve Bank — History of banknotes and coin.
- Brand South Africa — Griqua Town R5 coin.
- CoinWeek — South African Collector Coin Series.
- Bullion Exchanges — South African Mint.
- Hern, Brian. The Standard Catalogue of South African Coins, Medals and Tokens (annual).