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Any books on kruger rands gold coins.



South Africa: Nelson Mandela is the marginal

That an emerging country one of the most world currencies possesses is quite unusual. However, the South African Rand is also less become famous because of its bills, but rather by a gold coin. The name "Edge" is here already from the name of the Witwatersrand region, where the first gold discoveries were made. Famous but was especially the Kruger Rand. This coin is named after the politician and military leader Paul Kruger, who in the 19th Century was instrumental in one hand to help the black population in their ancestral homelands, and on the other hand the British troops to oppose.

The Kruger Rand is now the most minted gold coin in the world, which is probably the reason that Paul Kruger after the political changes in South Africa did not disappear from the scene. Conversely with the edge-bills. Until 1994, they all showed the face of Jan van Riebeeck, one of the first Dutch colonists at the Cape on behalf of the Dutch East India Company he had there in the 17th Century founded a fort, from which developed then Cape Town. He is thus in a sense, the forefather of all white settlers. As the apartheid regime ended in 1994 and the land of Nelson Mandela was the first black president, the bills were consequently pulled from the market in a short time.

In place of van Riebeeck came the so-called "Big Five", the five large and powerful wild animals of Africa: lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. Each one of which is shown on the five bills on the front edge. The backs show landscape panoramas or industrial and port facilities.

The interesting element on the back is the label. For it is a translation of the term "South African Reserve Bank," which is written on the front. In two of the ten other official languages ​​of the country So on the 100 Rand bill holds, for example, in Sesotho "Panka Ya Ya Resefe Borwa Africa" ​​and in Xitsonga "Banginkulu Ya Africa Dzonga". Afrikaans, the language of the Boers, who was for decades an equal footing with English, is one of ten languages ​​nurmehr appear only on the 10-border bill, together with the language Swati.

This distribution of the languages ​​will change in the future. The rest of the organization does. In early September, the National Bank announced the issue of a new series of banknotes. The "Big Five" are indeed preserved, but they move to the back there and replace the already not very respectable representations of plants and the natural park faded images. Adorns the front again in the future, however, the image of a person, and this of course will be Nelson Mandela. As before Jan van Riebeeck, the now 94-year-old to be seen on all border bills.

Thus, in a sense, the transition from the former apartheid regime to a democratically elected government led by the black majority is also reproduced on the banknotes of the country. Only with the gold coins you have not done so, there is still emblazoned Paul Kruger. But who knows, maybe it will soon also be a new gold coin from South Africa, and maybe this show will also Nelson Mandela.