Currency: South African Rand

Decimal Dan, pounds and shillings, independence, economic sanctions, Nelson Mandela.

What is one way to get an idea in everyone’s heads? Give it a jingle – which is exactly what the South African government did in 1961 when they introduced the South African Rand as the country’s official currency. Leaders created a jingle from Decimal Dan “the rand-cent man” to smooth the transition. The new currency replaced the South African Pound and coincided with the country’s independence from Great Britain, becoming the Republic of South Africa. The rand, noted by the symbol R, was valued at two to the pound, and used cents instead of shillings. Nowadays South African shop owners often round the total purchase of goods to the nearest five cents – in favor of the customer.

The rand is also the main currency in the Common Monetary Area, a group of countries including South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. From its inception in 1961, the rand was valued at $1.40, until 1982 when escalating political pressure combined with sanctions against the country made the currency’s value shrink.

Combining South Africa’s Dutch, British, and African history and heritage (the country recognizes 11 official languages), rand coins – colloquially referred to as “De Klerks” – initially bore the coat of arms and the name of the country in English, as well as in Afrikaans. As of November 2012, South Africa released a new series of bright, bold banknotes bearing the face of the country’s beloved Nelson Mandela, with flipsides featuring various indigenous animals like the rhinoceros, elephant, lion, and cheetah.