Page 106 - SARB: 100-Year Journey

Governor Gerard Rissik (seated) with Mr S F T Greaves (Chief Cashier) (left) reviewing the first South African rand banknote series. /SARB
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The banking and accounting tables differed from the popular conversion table in that the 21⁄2 cent was rounded upwards to 3 cents, and the 71⁄2 cent downwards to 7 cents. The banking table was to be used by the banks and all businesses in their internal accounting procedures. The reason was that accounting machines did not have a special ‘bank’ for half-cents. The banking table was followed when writing out cheques. (Rand Daily Mail, 14 February 1961a).
When D-day arrived on Tuesday, 14 February 1961, a news article pronounced the pound sterling obsolete: “Today – after 135 years of supreme rule – the South African pound is no more. The Union’s swing to decimals follows a similar move by Pakistan last year and the change-over in India two years ago. There are now 146 ‘decimalised’ countries and territories throughout the world. The non-decimal coinage countries – including Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the Federation – are following our conversion plans carefully. There are moves afoot in all these countries for a similar change. A number of Australian and New Zealand observers are in the Union to gain first-hand knowledge of the switch.” (Rand Daily Mail, 14 February 1961b).
On its part, the SARB “... on that day issued token quantities of its notes of the new R1, R2, R10 and R20 denominations to acquaint the public with the appearance of its new note forms and the use of the new currency unit.” (South African Reserve Bank, 1971, p 59).