The South African rand, or simply the rand, (sign: R; code: ZAR[a]) is the official currency of the Southern African Common Monetary Area: South Africa, Namibia (alongside the Namibian dollar), Lesotho (alongside the Lesotho loti) and Eswatini (alongside the Swazi lilangeni). It is subdivided into 100 cents (sign: “c”).
The South African rand is legal tender in the Common Monetary Area member states of Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini, with these three countries also having their own national currency (the dollar, the loti and the lilangeni respectively) pegged with the rand at parity and still widely accepted as substitutes. The rand was also legal tender in Botswana until 1976, when the pula replaced the rand at par.
ZAR Coins
Coins were introduced in 1961 in denominations of 1⁄2, 1, 2+1⁄2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents. In 1965, 2-cent coins replaced the 2+1⁄2-cent coins. The 1⁄2-cent coin was last struck for circulation in 1973. The 1-rand coin for circulation was introduced in 1967, followed by 2-rand coins in 1989 and 5-rand coins in 1994. Production of the 1- and 2-cent coins was discontinued in 2002, followed by 5-cent coins in 2012, primarily due to inflation having devalued them, but they remain legal tender. Shops normally round the total purchase price of goods to the nearest 10 cents (in favour of the consumer).
In an effort to curb counterfeiting, a new 5-rand coin was released in August 2004. Security features introduced on the coin include a bimetal design (similar to the €1 and €2 coins, the Thai ฿10 coin, the Philippine ₱10 coin [the coin was changed the composition to nickel-plated steel in 2018], the British £2 coin, and the Canadian $2 coin), a specially serrated security groove along the rim and microlettering.
ZAR Banknotes
The first series of rand banknotes was introduced in 1961 in denominations of 1-, 2-, 10-, and 20-rand, with similar designs and colours to the preceding pound notes to ease the transition. They bore the image of what was believed at the time to be Jan van Riebeeck, the first V.O.C. administrator of Cape Town. It was later discovered that the image was not in fact Van Riebeeck at all, a portrait of Bartholomeus Vermuyden had been mistaken for Van Riebeeck.[30] Like the last pound notes, they were printed in two variants, one with English written first and the other with Afrikaans written first.
In 1966, a second series was released with designs which moved away from the previous pound notes. Notes with denominations of 1-, 5- and 10-rand were produced with predominantly one colour per note. A smaller 1-rand note with the same design was introduced in 1973 and a 2-rand note was introduced in 1974. The 20-rand denomination from the first series was dropped. All notes bore the image of Jan van Riebeeck. The practice of having an English and an Afrikaans version of each note was continued in this series.
The 1978 series began with denominations of 2-, 5-, 10- and 20-rand, with a 50-rand introduced in 1984. This series had only one language variant for each denomination of note. Afrikaans was the first language on the 2-, 10-, and 50-rand, while English was the first language on the 5- and 20-rand. The 1-rand note was replaced by a coin.
South African ATM showing R 50 and R 100 banknotes.
In the 1990s, the notes were redesigned with images of the Big Five wildlife species. 10-, 20- and 50-rand notes were introduced in 1992 & 1993, retaining the colour scheme of the previous issue. Coins were introduced for the 2- and 5-rand, replacing the notes of the previous series, mainly because of the severe wear and tear experienced with low-denomination notes in circulation. In 1994, 100- and 200-rand notes were introduced.
The 2005 series has the same principal design, but with additional security features such as colour-shifting ink on the 50-rand and higher and the EURion constellation. The obverses of all denominations were printed in English, while two other official languages were printed on the reverse, thus making use of all 11 official languages of South Africa.
In 2010, the South African Reserve Bank and commercial banks withdrew all 1994 series 200-rand banknotes due to relatively high-quality counterfeit notes in circulation.
In 2011, the South African Reserve Bank issued 100-rand banknotes which were defective because they lacked fluorescent printing visible under UV light. In June, printing of this denomination was moved from the South African Bank Note Company to Crane Currency’s Swedish division (Tumba Bruk), which reportedly produced 80 million 100-rand notes. The South African Reserve Bank shredded 3.6 million 100-rand banknotes printed by Crane Currency because they had the same serial numbers as a batch printed by the South African Bank Note Company. In addition, the notes printed in Sweden were not the correct colour, and they were 1 mm short.
On 11 February 2012, President Jacob Zuma announced that the country would be issuing a new set of banknotes bearing Nelson Mandela’s image. They were entered into circulation on 6 November 2012. These contained the same denominations of 10-, 20-, 50-, 100-, and 200-rand.
In 2013, the 2012 series was updated with the addition of the EURion constellation to all five denominations.
On 18 July 2018, a special commemorative series of banknotes was released in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birth. This series includes notes of all denominations, 10-, 20-, 50-, 100-, and 200-rand. These notes will circulate alongside the existing notes. The notes depict the standard face of Nelson Mandela on the obverse, but instead of the Big Five animals on the reverse, they show a younger Mandela with different iconic scenes relating to his legacy. These scenes comprise: the rolling hills of the Eastern Cape, featuring Mandela’s humble birthplace of Mvezo (10-rand); the home of Mandela in Soweto, where he defined his political life alongside other struggle icons (20-rand); the site where Mandela was captured near Howick, following 17 months in hiding, where a monument to him has been erected (50-rand); the place of Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment at Robben Island, showing a pile of quarried limestone (100-rand); the statue of Mandela at the Union Buildings in remembrance of when he was inaugurated there in 1994 (200-rand).