Five Rand, Coin Type from South Africa - detailed information

The obverse shows the Coat of Arms of South Africa at centre, with the legend SOUTH AFRICA written around left and around right in two of the eleven official languages of the country; there is a system of rotation and every year a different pair is used. The possible inscriptions and languages are:

Aforika Borwa in Tswana,
Afrika Borwa in Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho,
Afrika Dzonga in Tsonga.
Afurika Tshipembe in Venda,
iNingizimu Afrika in Swazi,
iSewula Afrika in Southern Ndebele,
Ningizimu Afrika in Zulu,
South Africa in English,
Suid-Afrika in Afrikaans, and
uMzantsi Afrika in Xhosa.

The date of issue: · [year] · is above the Coat of Arms, separating the two inscriptions.

The designer's initials ALS (for Arthur L. Sutherland) are below the Coat of Arms.

The reverse of the coin shows at centre a The Rand currency was introduced in the then Union of South Africa on 14 February 1961, shortly before the establishment of the Republic on 31 May 1961. The largest circulating coin at the time was fifty cents; gradually, new coins were introduced to replace banknotes, with the highest circulating denomination now being Five Rand (abbreviated as R5).

These first R5 coins were made of Nickel-plated copper and were similar to the R2 and R1 coins of the time. The reverse depicts a Black Wildebeest or Gnu; these large animals are found in the northern grassveld regions of the Cape Province, throughout the Orange Free State to KwaZulu-Natal and the southern regions of Gauteng.

In 2004, the denomination changed to a larger bi-metallic coin, retaining the same design with some modifications; the earlier coins were not demonetised and are still legal tender. (also known as a Gnu), running to left.

On the earlier coins, the value and denomination 5 RAND are above; on the bimetallic coins the numeral is above and the word RAND is around below. The bimetallic coins also have the abbreviation SARB (South African Reserve Bank, the issuer of the coin) repeated as an ornament in microtext around the outer ring.

In the lower left, the initials of the engraver: ALS (for Arthur L. Sutherland).

Note that some bullion issues, e.g. silver ounces, are also denominated with R5 face value.