The Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. In 1652 the Dutchman Jan van Riebeeck established Cape Town as a stopping point for ships of the Dutch East India Company trading vessels. The Dutch imported coins for their colony, but did not mint any coins locally.
In 1795 the Netherlands were under French rule. British forces captured the Cape in 1795, relinquished control under the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, and recaptured the Cape permanently in 1806. During the brief Dutch rule, the first guilder coins were struck for South Africa in 1802 and exported to the Cape; however, because of the continuing hostilities, the coins were shipped on to Java and not used in the Cape. When the British took over, the governor listed British, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Indian gold and silver coins in circulation. The British then imported British coins in bulk to replace the foreign coins. British coins were made the official legal tender in 1825. In Natal, Indian rupees were the primary coin, though Australian gold coins were officially accepted from 1866 on. British coins became the official currency of Natal in 1882 and of Bechuanaland in 1885.
In the 1830s many Afrikaners with their slaves migrated northward to escape British rule. They established the Orange Free State (1854; later the Orange River Colony) and the South African Republic (1838; later called Transvaal).
The Union of South Africa was created on May 31, 1910 by joining the Boer Republics of Orange Free State (occupied by the British between 1900 and 1902 and renamed the Orange River Colony from 1902 to 1910) and Transvaal (the Boer South African Republic to 1877, and from 1880 to 1900, occupied by Britain between 1877 and 1880, and 1900 to 1910) with the British Cape Colony and Natal. Natal became an independent Crown Colony in 1856, and was later enlarged by adding the New Republic and Zululand to its territory. Griqualand West was founded as a British Crown Colony in 1873, and in 1880 it and Griqualand East were conjoined with the Cape Colony. British Bechuanaland became a crown colony in 1885, when the former Boer Republic of Stellaland (established in 1883 and occupied by the British in 1885) was annexed to it. British Bechuanaland was incorporated into the Cape Colony on November 16, 1895, and Zululand had been incorporated into Natal on December 1, 1897. The Statute of Westminister granted full sovereignty to South Africa on December 11, 1931.
When Jan van Rieback founded the Cape Colony in 1652, the Spanish Dollar, divided into 8 Reals was in general use in the Netherlands, and thus in South Africa. Guilders, Rixdollars, silver Ducatoons and copper Doits were introduced in the 1680s by the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch East India Company issued its own Reales of a similar fineness to Spanish Reales for colonial use. Indian silver rupees, Japanes Koban, English Guineas, Portuguese Joes and Russian Rubles also circulated in the Cape. In the Dutch monetary system, 1 Dutch rijksdaalder (rix dollar) equalled 2.5 Dutch gulden equaled 8.33 Schillings = 50 Stuivers; however, in the Cape, 1 Cape of Good Hope rijksdaalder = 8 Cape schillings (skilling) = 48 Cape stivers. By 1770, the Cape Rijksdaalder had become a separate unit of account with 1 Cape Rijksdaalder = 0.96 Dutch Rijksdaalder = 0.20 British Pounds Sterling.
The Dutch Governor Van Plettenberg introduced the first banknotes into South Africa in 1782 due to a shortage of Dutch coins. The first notes, issued in Rixdollars and Stuivers by the Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie, were handwritten until the first printed banknotes appeared in 1803. The East India Company issued banknotes denominated in Rix Dollars (XEIR) in Cape Town between 1808 and 1865. The state Lombard bank opened in 1793, and the first private bank, the Cape of Good Hope Bank, opened in 1837. Altogether about 30 private banks issued banknotes in the 1800s, but by the time the Union of South Africa was established in 1910, only four note-issuing banks remained.
Token coins were produced locally throughout the 1800s. In 1815 the London Missionary Society to the Bastards of Griqua Town issued penny denominated coins. Some gold coins were minted for Transvaal in 1877, though they were minted in Birmingham. In 1892, the Pretoria mint began issuing coins for the South African Republic. The South African Republic issued its own Pound banknotes (ZAPP) between 1867 and 1902.
The British Pound Sterling (GBP) was used in South Africa from 1835 until August 10, 1920 when the South African Pound (ZAP) was created at par with the Pound Sterling. South Africa went off the Gold Standard on December 28, 1932. The Pound was divisible into 20 Shillings or 240 Pence. The South African Rand (ZAR) replaced the South African Pound on February 14, 1961 at the rate of 1 Pound equal to 2 Rand. The Rand is divisible into 100 Cents. Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland left the Sterling Area on June 23, 1972 when the United Kingdom officially went off the gold standard.
The government issued banknotes from 1910 until 1920 when the South African Reserve Bank became the sole note-issuing authority. South Africa created a Financial Rand (ZAL) between 1976 and 1995 for financial transactions involving the purchase and sale of securities. |
