South Africa launches notes, gold coins for 100th anniversary of Mandela’s birth
South Africa has launched a set of limited edition bank notes and gold coins ahead of the Nelson Mandela centenary birthday.
The founding father of the country was born on 18 July 1918, and would have turned 100 next week.
The South African Reserve Bank said the notes depict Mandela’s life, including his upbringing in rural Eastern Cape as the son of a chief, his 27-year incarceration and the end of apartheid in 1994 when he became president. Mandela died in 2013 aged 95.
The launch of the notes and gold coins forma part of a series of events across the world, culminating locally in an annual Mandela Day lecture to be delivered by former U.S. president Barack Obama.
The etching on the 1-ounce gold coin of a smiling middle-aged Mandela with his hair parted down the middle was designed by Zimbabwe-born Sindiso Nyoni, whose work includes stinging rebukes of former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.
“Growing up and living most of my life under a dictatorship, we were not able to experience this feeling of democracy that South Africans have,” Nyoni said. Mandela’s face already graces all South Africa’s banknotes.
