Page 54 - SARB: 100-Year Journey
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The first South African banknotes were printed on behalf of the Bank of England by Bradbury Wilkinson and Company Limited in England. /SARB
All of the SARB’s banknotes, except the 10s, were designed by Pretoria artist Gordon Pilkington. The design of the notes was intended to represent the four provinces of the Union. The SARB issued its first banknotes to the public on 19 April 1922. /SARB
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All of the SARB’s banknotes, except the 10s, were designed by Pretoria artist Gordon Pilkington and printed by the Bank of England, Clegg informed stockholders. The design of the notes was intended to represent the four provinces of the Union, according to Clegg.
The Cape Province was represented by Van Riebeeck’s ship approaching Table Mountain; Natal and the Free State were represented by the Mont-aux-Sources; the Transvaal was represented by the pastoral scene of the veld and by the chimneys and headgears of Johannesburg; while the railway train crossing the river by a bridge may be said to have represented the thread of communication which bound all four provinces together, Clegg told stockholders.
On 11 June 1926, during the sixth ordinary meeting of stockholders, Clegg declared: “Our main objective as a central bank must ever be to maintain the value of the South African pound at par with the amount of gold which the Mint puts into sovereign.” (South African Reserve Bank, Reports of Ordinary General Meetings, 1921−1929, p 10). This statement has stood the test of time, as will be revealed in the following segments.
Admittedly, “... [the] central bank established in South Africa began its life in the profoundest trade depression which the world has ever seen,” said Clegg (South African Reserve Bank, Reports of Ordinary General Meetings, 1921−1929, p 7) during the fourth ordinary meeting of stockholders on 25 June 1924.
Indeed, the period leading up to and shortly after Governor Clegg assumed duty was a volatile time for the South African economy, characterised by labour strikes. The global depression that followed World War I had affected South Africa. In addition, this era was coloured by significant political developments, whose implications reverberate in contemporary South Africa – moreover on the SARB in terms of the space it occupies in the South African socio-economic context.