Home

Two Sparrows for a farthing

The South African Mint

After we returned from Natal we needed a few days to rest and prepare for the next leg of our trip.
Well apart from seeing to the laundry we also did some very interesting local sight seeing. One of these was a visit to the Mint to see how money is "made".

I visited the South African Mint a few times and knew that they had a very nice shop there with an interesting exhibition of the special commemorative coins that South Africa won many international awards over the years - and some nice jewellery too. So we went there on the Saturday. The Shop called "Coin World" was open but unfortunately we found out that they only have guided tours of the Mint on weekdays. We browsed through the shop and visited the exhibition which was very interesting. I then booked a guided tour of the Mint for us for the Monday morning.

Well we were not sure that we would be able to hear much on a guided tour and I enquired about special accommodations for us to make sure that we will hear as much as possible. Our bigger concern however was that we had to go through various security doors with metal detectors etc. and the last thing we wanted was for Peter's map to be wiped out.

When we arrived on the Monday we found it rather easy to convince the guard at the front entrance that we cannot go through the metal detector and then went to the reception area where I informed the friendly lady at the desk about our "hearing needs". She was happy to accommodate us and paged a security guard who arranged everything for us and also contacted the tour guide to tell him about our problem. All visitors have to go through another set of security gates with metal detectors when going on the guided tour. We had the best treatment that you could wish for and everybody was most accommodating. They allowed us to go in through a separate entrance before we met up with the rest of the group to have a look at how our money is made.

Griqua Tokens

The royal Mint was established in Pretoria in 1923 and became the South African Mint in 1941 when all ties were broken with The Royal Mint. In 1961 the Republic of South Africa was proclaimed and South Africa adopted a decimal coin system. The former half pound became the new monetary unit, (called the "Rand") and the one shilling became 10 cents. The South African Mint was privatized as a full subsidiary of the SA Reserve Bank in September 1988.

A new Mint was built and completed in October 1990 and today South Africa boasts the most modern mint in the world. Not only do we mint our own range of beautiful coins but we also mint coinage for many other countries as well as make blanks for some other countries too. A new series of electroplated coins were introduced as a solution to the escalating costs of materials and the increasing risk of falsification. This now consists of three different groups of coins. The new striking South African coat of arms is struck on the reverse side of the coins since December 2000.

Our guided tour of the Mint was very interesting. We saw the whole manufacturing process right from the manufacturing of the dies to the coining and packaging.

Most of the manufacturing process is strictly controlled within a computer integrated manufacturing system. Automated guided vehicles are used throughout the factory. Blank circular disks are punched out of metal strips by high speed blanking presses that can produce 4000 coins per minute. The blanks are then electroplated and annealed to prepare them for minting. The mint has thirteen high speed presses that can each produce 750 coins per minute! I must say it was quite amazing to see the coins coming out of this extremely fast press. At the time of our visit 10 cent coins were minted.

The tour started with a video show of which I did not understand much but I was not very concerned about it since I had already told the guide that I am going to "hang on to him" to be able to lip-read. I made sure that I was staying next to him most of the time keeping a close watch on Peter to see if he was happy and understanding the guide because he still had problems with the South African accent as well at that time.

Well let me first note a few interesting facts about the story of money in our country. (I got this information from a brochure that was given to me at the Mint).

When Jan van Riebeeck landed in the Cape way back in 1652 the Spanish silver reals or "Pieces of Eight" was the most popular coin in circulation but due to the hectic trading at the time other coins were also used. To clear up the confusion the authorities introduced the Cape Rix Daller. This was a theoretical currency that linked all the different coins and made trading much easier because it assigned a relative value to all acceptable coins.

However, it was only in 1813 that the first coins were minted specifically for South Africa. The reverent John Campbell of the London Missionary Society visited a mission near Klaarwater north of the Orange river. He persuaded the community to change their name to the older one of Griqua and to call their settlement Griquatown. He then had four tokens minted for them in England. These tokens, 10 pence and five pence in silver and 1/2 penny and 1/4 penny in bronze, were in circulation for only two years. Although the experiment was not a success the series is considered unique as it is the only Christian missionary coinage known in the world and it was also the very first African coinage.

With the discovery of Gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886, President Paul Kruger realized that the ZAR needed its own coins and the national bank for the ZAR was built on the northwesterly corner of Church Square in Pretoria and opened in 1892. When the Anglo Boer war broke out the Mint was closed in 1900 and the one pound blanks that were in storage were used by the Boers for payment of State expenditure. They were named "naked pounds". An attempt was also made to mint coins at an abandoned gold mine near Pilgrim's Rest and pound pieces of practically pure gold were struck to the intrinsic value of 22 shillings! With a single set of dies 986 gold coins were minted after many trials. Today this "veldpond" rates amongst the most precious historical treasures a collector can hope to have. After the Anglo Boer war the British currency became the legal tender in South Africa.

Numismatic Coins

Apart from the official coin series the SA mint also issues numismatic coins - coins for collectors.

South Africa is not only known for its wildlife. Many people also associate us with Johannesburg and the Krugerrand. The name Krugerrand is derived from the name of President Kruger and Rand - the monetary unit of South Africa. In 1967 the Mint introduced the handsome new coin of one ounce troy fine gold as a prime collector's piece. The bullion Krugerrand is linked to the daily gold price while the proof Krugerrand is available in limited quantities with a yearly fixed price. Sadly I could not convince Peter to buy me a few of these symbols of South Africa's rich gold heritage...

Due to the popularity of the Krugerrand other gold collector's pieces were also introduced. These include the Protea series (24 carat gold); the natura series including the "Big Five", (lion, rhinoceros, elephant, buffalo and leopard) "Monarchs of Africa" (kudu, sable and Oryx). The 1996 "elephant", 1997 "Buffalo", and the 1999 "Kudu" have won the award "The world's most beautiful gold commemorative coin" at the Mint Director's conferences. Many other coins have won similar international awards.

The mint also has a Cultural series, the R2 gold coin series (amongst others depicting Mrs. Ples), a silver coin series and the2 1/2 Cent silver "tickey" series. Due to popular demand for more affordable silver coins the Mint also introduced the wildlife sterling silver series. Truly beautiful coins! All these coins as well as a limited edition medallion watches, jewellery and other exciting collector's items are sold at the Mint. So if you ever come to South Africa make sure that you go to the mint with enough money to spoil yourself!! Foreign currency goes a long way in buying these beautiful coins that makes SUPER jewellery items.

Two Sparrows for a Farthing

The smallest denomination of South African coins, (the one cent piece), depicts two Cape sparrows. The use of this design also is an interesting story...

During the Anglo Boer war (1899-1902) a group of women in the Bethulie concentration camp adopted the Bible text of Matthew 10:29 as their motto for survival: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father knowing it?"

These women vowed that if South Africa ever issued a farthing (1/4 penny), ha'penny or cent, they would endeavour to have the sparrow - a symbol of faith and hope - depicted on the coin. The women succeeded and since 1923, the sparrow has been portrayed on South Africa's lowest denomination.