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The history of money in South Africa
The story of money in South Africa is an intricate saga woven into colonial history and charts the genesis of early commercial activity. By Valentine’s Day in 1961, South Africa had embraced its new currency, the rand. In one fell swoop, the country ended its 135-year love affair with the Union of South Africa’s pound. The South African pound had been in use since 1825.
The year 2021 marks 60 years since the introduction of the South African rand (traded as the ZAR), the value of which the SARB is responsible. The history of the SARB would not be complete without that of the rand [CROSS REFERENCE: The Introduction of the South African Rand], the currency to which the institution is so closely and mutually associated. That record would also be incomplete without the context of South Africa’s more than 300 years of colonial and modern history. It is a story of overseas trade, colonial and civil wars, conquest, blood, oppression, social and political upheaval and, eventually, hope.
Banknotes, coins or crypto-assets are the generally accepted forms of money today. But the reality is that, in its origin, money could be anything – stone, fabric, paper or metal. It was – and still is – trust expressed in writing on a surface. Money represents the transactional relationship between a buyer and seller, or between a lender and a borrower.