New money for ZA

A new series of coins have been declared legal tender starting on 1 January, the final step in formalising an overhaul in the look of all South African circulation coins.

The South African Reserve Bank has gazetted the new designs for the 2023 Fourth Decimal Coin Series of South Africa, which will become legal tender from 1 January 2023.

The new coins were first announced during a virtual meeting on 31 August, where the cabinet green-lit the new dimension, design, and compilation of the coins.

In some cases, the changes are striking, such as the new 50c featuring a loerie with outstretched wings, and a whale-themed new R5 coin.

Earlier this year, the government announced a change in approach to the languages used on coins in this series. In order to reflect every official language in the currency, the "South Africa" imprint appears multiple times in different languages on some of the coins: three on the R5 coin, one on the R1, and two on each of the R2, 50c, 20c, and 10c coins.

The coins will be minted on a rotational system with the use of all the official languages being printed onto the coin over a certain period. For the next ten years, the languages will be alternated annually.

The following number of languages will be minted of the various coin varieties:

• R5 – three languages will be used;

• R2, 50c, and 10c – two languages will be used;

• R1 – only one language will be used.

First published on Business Insider and Business Tech websites