One of the most famous coins in the world
Since the Krugerrand was first minted in 1967, it has become the most widely known investor gold coin in the world. In German-speaking countries, the gold coin is called "Krugerrand" with a slight modification. The name of the gold coin is a combination of the depicted former President Kruger and the currency of South Africa, the "Rand".
The Krugerrand has a fineness of 916.67 (91.67% gold), which corresponds to 22 carats. This fineness was adopted from the so-called Rand gold coins and the former sovereigns. These were used in payment transactions at the time. However, pure gold would have been unsuitable as a means of payment, as it is not scratch-resistant and abrasion-proof. To harden the precious metal, copper was added to the gold as an alloying metal. Incidentally, this is also responsible for the intense reddish color of the Krugerrand. Due to the (non-)precious metal mixture of gold and copper, the Krugerrand became harder. As a result, the gold coins could once again be used as a means of payment.
The center of one side of the coin depicts a springbok on a suggested grassy landscape. The year of mintage is shown divided on both sides of the gazelle-like animal. The Krugerrand is the only bullion coin to feature this design. The words "Krugerrand" can be found above the springbok, and the details of the metal type and the fine weight are embossed below.
The second side of the coin features the portrait of Paul Kruger, a president of the former Boer republic of Transvaal. The Kruger National Park in South Africa is also named after this enthusiastic animal lover. The minting country "South Africa" is indicated on both sides of the likeness in Afrikaans as well as in English.
Since the Krugerrand is official currency according to the South African constitution, the face value is based on the London fixing price, which varies daily. Therefore, there is no denomination on the coin.
While the mintage was initially limited to 40,000 coins per year after the first issue, the mintage figures "exploded" in the following years, culminating in the record mintage of more than 6 million coins in 1978. A total of around 60 million have been minted to date.
In addition to the original 1-ounce coin, the Rand Refinery also introduced half, quarter and tenth denominations to the market beginning in 1980.
In 1986, as a protest against South Africa's apartheid policies, both the U.S. and the EU banned imports of the Krugerrand, causing a massive collapse in trade and production of the coins.
When the import ban was finally lifted again in 1999 - after the end of apartheid - the Krugerrand had long since been largely ousted from the market by other bullion coins, such as the "American Gold Eagle" or the "Kangaroo".
Since 2000, the mintage of the Krugerrand has been recovering, but remains far behind earlier mintages. Nevertheless, the Krugerrand is still one of the best known and most common bullion coins, although 90% of the Krugerrand gold coins traded today are from earlier vintages. This also explains why the Krugerrand is one of the cheapest bullion coins.
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Our current Krugerrand prices in Euro in buying & selling can be found here:
Prices last updated on 23. October 2024, 13:42 o'clock
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