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When you think of the South African rand compared to the pound, for example, you don’t exactly see gold.

But that is precisely the history behind the name of our currency.

There was once a time when South Africa had no monetary authority and commercial banks were at the centre of circulating banknotes.

The SA Reserve Bank was only established on June 30, 1921. 10 months later, on April 19, 1922, it started releasing its first banknotes – in SA pounds, pence, and shillings under the British tender.

TimesLIVE has more:

On this day [yesterday] in 1922, the Bank was granted the sole authority to produce, issue and destroy SA currency, and is entrusted with ensuring its availability and integrity.

The central bank has since then invested significantly in the currency’s security features to protect the public from counterfeiting.

It has been exactly 100 years and one day since the SA Reserve Bank put our currency in circulation, which has been through all the possible highs and lows since then.

In 1961, on Valentine’s Day, the SA pound changed its name to the rand.

The rand took its name from the Witwatersrand, the ridge in Johannesburg famed for most of our country’s uncovered gold.

Image: Africa Facts

Since then, the rand has developed into a liquid emerging market currency, most commonly traded against the US dollar.

The 1960s saw a very strong currency emerge, per BusinessTech:

When the rand debuted, it traded at R2 to the pound, or 10 shillings to the rand.

Coming off of the strong base of the “South African Pound” was valued, as a yearly average, stronger than the US dollar, debuting at 72 cents to the dollar in 1961.

Apartheid and generations of racial inequality dented the rand. In the post-Apartheid era, the rand was impacted over and over again by social, political, and economic crises both locally and abroad.

We’re talking about a few global recessions, increasing debt, socio-political unrest, corruption, and Eskom.

That’s how you end up nudging R20 to the pound, R15 to the US dollar, and more than R16 to the Euro.

[sources:timeslive&businesstech]