mr. stals looks at the role of central banks in the twenty - first century opening address by the governor of the south african reserve bank, dr. c. stals, at the twentieth mint director ’ s conference in sun city on 23 / 3 / 98. 1. the history of money reflects the history of the world the history of money by far outdates the history of central banking. the riksbank of sweden and the bank of england are recognised as the oldest central banks in the world. and yet, they were only established during the seventeenth century. the use of various instruments as money dates back at least 5, 000 years. in antiquity, money took the form of ornaments and household utensils and tools. in egypt, circa 2000 bc, rings, anklets, necklaces and bracelets were used extensively as common means of exchange. as you as mintmasters know very well, the legendary king croesus of lydia in asia minor is generally credited with the honour of first introducing a formal and sovereign coinage system, when official silver and gold coins were struck in his kingdom between the years 560 to 546 bc. it became common practice to mint sovereign coins in the subsequent persian, greek and roman empires. perhaps even before this time, official coins were also struck in china. thus, coinage, mintage and the issue of money became part of the history of the world. it is recorded in history that the greeks managed their financial responsibilities quite well. they consolidated the coin issues of the various city states into the drachma, a unit for the greek currency that is still used today. the romans, however, were more profuse. one of the first things they did after they conquered greece in 146 bc was to debase the drachma by reducing its silver content from 67 to 65 grammes. as a matter of fact, the romans often wiped out state obligations by devaluation or coin debasement. in the end, this profligacy contributed to the downfall of the roman empire. 2. the history of coinage in south africa in south africa, likewise, the history of coins was always interwoven with the history of the country. the portuguese, with bartholomew dias reaching the cape in 1487, and vasco da gama, who sailed around the cape in 1497, are credited for discovering the sea route around africa to the spices of the east. later discoveries, however, of phoenician and chinese coins on the

east coast of southern africa, raised the question of who the first real non - african explorers of southern africa could have been? with portuguese, dutch, british, spanish, french and even eastern interests in the sea route around the cape, many coins of foreign origin came into circulation in southern africa. the dutch riksdaalder and the british guinea and pound perhaps played the major role for many years in the early history of south africa. it was during the time of the second british occupation of the cape after 1806 that a british governor found it necessary to fix “ exchange ” rates between the various currencies that circulated in the cape at that time. it is interesting what currencies were included in this list : spanish daalders, venetian sequins, a ducat, a gold ropy ( rupee ), an english shilling, and the dutch riksdaalder and half - guilder. [UNK] during a long period of british rule, british money circulated freely in south africa, which included the farthing, ha ’ penny, thruppence ( tickey ), sixpence, shilling, florin, half - crown, and crown ( 5 shillings ). the situation changed again with the establishment of the independent republics of the orange free state and the transvaal ( zar ). the free state reverted to the riksdaalder ( = 1 shilling and sixpence ). in the zar, riksdaalder notes were also issued to serve as currency, although the riksdaalder was supplemented by periodic issues of zar pound notes in various denominations. in 1874, the zar issued its first coins, the burgers pounds. as not many of these coins were issued, they became very valuable collectors ’ pieces. it was only in 1890, however, that final legislation was passed for the establishment of a state mint, and for the minting of zar coins in pennies, shillings, and pound denominations. these coins, commonly referred to as kruger coins, were first minted in 1892 in a building situated on church square in pretoria. after the anglo boer war, british money was again used predominantly in the new british south africa ( to become the union of south africa in 1910 ). the history of south african coinage took a last major step when a branch of the british royal mint was established in pretoria and started to issue south african minted ( sterling ) coins in 1923. this association with the royal