SOUTH AFRICA (Page 1 of 3)

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Recent coins of South Africa

South Africa new coat of arms on 1 Cent 2000
The NEW South African coat of arms on a 2000 dated 1 Cent coin.

    South Africa has a new completely new coat of arms, so being as the circulation coins all show the coat of arms, they too have had to be updated. The above coin is the first type to have appeared in circulation with this new coat of arms.

For more information - see  S.A. new Coat of Arms .

South Africa 2000 and 1996 1 Cent coins
South African 1 Cents coins of 2000 and 1996.

    1 Cent coins dated 2000 also exist with the old coat of arms. It waits to be seen if any other denominations will exist with both obverses for the year 2000.
    The present sizes and compositions of the South African circulation coins came about in 1990 with change to plated blanks for circulation coinage and the relocation of minting operations to the new mint at Gateway, Centurion. Coins of 1990 to 1995 inclusive used English and Afrikaans legends together i.e. "SOUTH AFRICA   SUID-AFRIKA" around the coat of arms. The great political changes of 1994 led the government to decide that the other languages of South Africa needed to be portrayed on the coinage. So we have a different way of saying "South Africa" on each denomination. For a few years before a further change was made for the 2002 coinage they legends were as such...

1 Cent "ISEWULA AFRIKA" which is the Ndebele language
2 Cents "AFURIKA-TSHIPEMBE" which is the Venda language
5 Cents "AFROLA-DZONGA" which is the Tsonga language
10 Cents "SOUTH AFRICA" which is the English language
20 Cents "AFERIKA BORWA" which is the Tswana language
50 Cents "AFRIKA BORWA" which is the North Sotho and South Sotho languages
1 Rand "SUID-AFRIKA" which is the Afrikaans language
2 Rand "UMZANTSI AFRIKA" which is the Xhosa language
5 Rand "ININGIZIMU AFRIKA" which is the Zulu and Swati languages

    The 1996 1 Cent coins (an example can be seen in the image above) used the name "ININGIZIMU AFRIKA" (Zulu/Swati language) which meant that this legend representing two languages (Zulu and Swati) was represented on two coins. The Ndebele language must have been added as an eleventh language to the series (introduced to the coinage with the first 1 Cent coins of 1997). The Zulu and Swati languages were still both represented in the series on the 5 Rand coins.

    The further changes for 2002 (mentioned earlier) are yet to become fully clear to me..... The 2002 dated coins have the words for "South Africa" written in words with just the first letter of each word in upper case, all other letters in lower case - previously all letters of all words were in upper case text. The first 2003 dated South African I acquired was the "Cricket" 50 Cent. I noticed that it had "Afrika Borwa" a different language than the the 2002 dated 50 Cent coins which have "Aforika Borwa". The website of the South African Mint Company, where it gives details of the 2002 uncirculated sets, says "A schedule has been published in Government Gazette No. 23019, dated 1 February 2002, in which the rotation of the languages on coins, from 2002 to 2011, appears. There are currently ten ways to write the word “South Africa” in the eleven official languages." I looked on the South African government's main website to try and find the Gazette that the mint had mentioned. I found that the actual gazette number must be "23091". The page that is the index to official government notices includes the entry "The rotation of language usage on Circulation Coins from 2002 to 2011 (Gazette 23091, Notice 133), 1 February 2002". Links to many of the other notices of Gazette 23091 worked (documents being presented as pdf files) and gave details mainly of commemorative coinage issues. The link to Gazette 23091, Notice 133 did not link to the correct document (I have sent them a message about it...) and so I have yet to find out the actual full plan of language rotation on future circulation coins of South Africa.

    However 10 languages will take 10 years to make one full rotation cycle of 10 different locations on coins. Having compared 50 Cent coins of 2002 and 2003, having got a 2002 uncirculated set and with info from the S.A. Mint's website in mind - there is one obvious way that I can SUGGEST the whole rotation pattern will look......

South Africa expected planned rotation pattern for 2002 to 2011
South Africa expected planned language rotation pattern for 2002 to 2011.

South Africa expected planned rotation pattern for 2002 to 2011 - KEY to Languages
South Africa expected planned language rotation pattern for 2002 to 2011 - KEY to Languages.

    I would imagine that full details will be given by the notice - perhaps the notice will even make provision for South Africa introducing new circulation coins of higher denominations and perhaps phasing out further low denominations.

**  Recent Circulating Commemoratives  **

    A new press release on the website of the South African Reserve Bank (dated 28th March 2002) announces that "the minting of South African 1 cent and 2 cent coins and their continual distribution for circulation by the South African Reserve Bank will cease on 31 March 2002". This had followed a few years of the government and media having thought about doing this and a decision made by the government in July 2000. It had got that the cost of manufacturing the 1 and 2 Cent coins was 9 and 5.5 times their face values respectively. For now the coins will remain legal tender and there is no sign of an announcement about how long that will remain so - I can only guess that perhaps these two tiny denominations will cease to be legal tender at the end of the year. There are around 1100 South African Cents to 1 U.S. Dollar !

South Africa 50 Cents 2002 Football circulating commemorative
The South Africa 50 Cents 2002 "Football" circulating commemorative coin (scale 200dpi).

    Some further new from the South African mint......  In May 2002 a new circulating commemorative coin of 50 Cents was launched (circulation mintage to be 9 million pieces), it has a football theme, depicts a South African footballer on the reverse and honours South Africa's national football team, "Bafana Bafana" - their 10th anniversary and their qualification to the World Cup Finals that were held in Korea and Japan. As at June 2003 these coins are turning up new in change quite often and had not previously been seen so often.

South Africa 1 Rand 2002 - World Summit on Sustainable Development
The recent South Africa 1 Rand for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (scale 200dpi).

    In August 2002 a new circulating commemorative coin of 1 Rand was launched  (circulation mintage to be 1 million pieces), its theme is the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), there is depicted on the reverse a globe with Africa prominent and the words 'Johannesburg World Summit'.

South Africa 50 Cents 2003 Cricket circulating commemorative
The recent South Africa 50 Cents 2003 "Cricket" circulating commemorative coin (scale 200dpi).

At the end of October 2002 coins commemorating the occasion of the 2003 Cricket World Cup were announced these included another circulating commemorative 50 Cent type. Dealers outside of South Africa had examples of this latest 50 Cent coin for sale by around March 2003.
 
 

For more info on these coins see - South African Mint Company .

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South Africa Tokens Page

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The background image is the obverse of a recent 10 Cent type.






Page updated in April 2003 - addition of Football & WSSD coin images and a few slight changes here and there.
Page than updated to add image of Cricket coin and 2002/2011 rotation imfo in June 2003.