Krugerrand

For the Ian McNabb album, see Krugerrands.

The Krugerrand (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈkryxərˌrɐnt]; English /ˈkruːɡəˌrænd/ or /ˈkruːɡəˌrɑːnd/) is a South African gold coin, first minted in 1967 to help market South African gold and produced by the South African Mint. By 1980 the Krugerrand accounted for 90% of the global gold coin market. The name itself is a compound of "Kruger" (the man depicted on the obverse) and "rand", the South African unit of currency. During the 1970s and 1980s some Western countries forbade import of the Krugerrand because of its association with the apartheid government of South Africa.

Production levels of Krugerrands have significantly varied during the last 50 years. From 1967–1969, around 40,000 coins were minted each year. In 1970, the amount rose to over 200,000 coins. Over one million coins were produced in 1974 and in 1978 a total of six million Krugerrands were produced. Following the end of apartheid the production dropped to 23,277 coins in 1998 and since then levels have increased again, albeit not reaching pre-international sanction levels.