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The Story of the Rand
The rand is the currency of South Africa. It takes its name from the Witwatersrand (White-waters-ridge in Afrikaans), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found.
It was first introduced in 1961, coinciding with the establishment of the Republic of South Africa. It replaced the South African pound as legal tender, at the rate of two rand per pound or ten shillings to the rand.
The rand has the symbol 'R' and is divided into 100 cents, symbol 'c', and is available in denominations of five notes (R10, R20, R50, R100 and R200) and seven coins (5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, R1, R2 and R5). One and two cent coins were also available until their discontinuation in April 2002, primarily due to inflation devaluing them.
All prices are now rounded to the nearest 5c and the coins are no longer in circulation.
The first series of rand banknotes bore the image of Jan van Riebeeck, the first V.O.C. administrator of Cape Town.
In the 1990s, the notes were redesigned with images of the Big Five wildlife species. The new notes and coins are also printed in all eleven official languages of South Africa.
In an effort to curb counterfeiting, a new R5 coin was released in August 2004 as well as new banknotes in February 2005. Security features introduced on the coin include a bi-metal design (similar to the €1 and €2 coins, and the British £2 coin), a specially-serrated security groove along the rim and micro-lettering. The new notes also feature a number of new security features.
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