1 Cent, South Africa, 1961

1 Cent, South Africa, 1961

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Description (Brief)
One (1) cent coin
South Africa, 1961
Obverse Image: Bust of Jan van Riebeeck.
Obverse Text: UNITY IS STRENGTH / EENDRAG MAAK MAG
Reverse Image: Covered wagon.
Reverse Text: SOUTH AFRICA / 1961 / SUID-AFRIKA / 1C.
Description
South Africa broke its political ties with Great Britain in 1961 and became an independent republic. In the years that followed, it changed the design of its coins to replace the portrait of Queen Elizabeth with a portrait of Jan van Riebeeck. Van Riebeeck was an official of the Dutch East India Company and the first commander of the Cape of Good Hope in the mid-1600s. For Afrikaner South Africans, Van Riebeeck represented the historical origins of a white-led state. The coins were minted at a time when apartheid political ideology dominated South African society. Apartheid laws enforced racial segregation and oppressed Africans and other people of color. This coin also depicts a wagon, which was a symbol of the movement of the Great Trek of the 1830s, a period in which the ancestors of European immigrants migrated from the Cape of Good Hope into the South African interior.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
coin
date made
1961
place used
South Africa
place made
South Africa: Gauteng, Pretoria
Physical Description
brass (overall material)
Measurements
overall:.17 cm x 3.08 cm; 1/16 in x 1 7/32 in
ID Number
NU.77.70.1155
catalog number
77.70.1155
accession number
1977.1138
Credit Line
Ellis H. Robison
See more items in
Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
South African Currency
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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