OLD SOUTH AFRICAN R1 NOTE FROM 1961 VAN RIEBEECK LARGE TYPE

AN OLD SOUTH AFRICAN R1 NOTE VAN RIEBEECK LARGE TYPE.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE BANK STARTED ISSUING THESE 1 SOUTH AFRICAN RAND BANKNOTES IN 1961. THEY WERE WITHDRAWN FROM CIRCULATION IN 1966.

THE LARGE TYPE BANKNOTE OF 1 SOUTH AFRICAN RAND IS REDDISH BROWN COLOURED WITH A PORTRAIT OF JAN VAN RIEBEECK (OR IS IT?) TO THE LEFT. ON THE BACK SIDE IS A LION WITH THE TEXT EX UNITATE VIRES (FROM UNITY STRENGTH), OLD SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL MOTTO.
 
THIS NOTE WAS ISSED IN 1961 AND HAS THE PREFIX NUMBER A over 28 472124.
 
THE FRONT HAS THE SIGNATURE OF MH (Michiel Hendrik) DE KOCK THE SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE BANK GOVERNOR FROM 1945 TO 1962.
 
FROM 1948 TO 1977 NOTES WERE ISSUED IN TWO LANGUAGE VARIANTS AFRIKAANS OVER ENGLISH AND ENGLISH OVER AFRIKAANS.
 
SIZE: 137mm x 78mm
 
CONDITION: ONE OR TWO SMALL EDGE TEARS. SOME CORNER CURLS AND WRINKLES. OVERALL FINE CONDITION.
 
SHORT HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN DECIMAL RAND:
In 1956 South Africa established the Decimal Coinage Commission to look at South Africas currency.
At the time South Africa was still a British colony, and as such operated under the British tender of pounds, shillings, and pence.
On 8 August 1958, the commission recommended replacing the British Pound with a new currency named rand.
The name comes from the word Witwatersrand the area where most of South Africas gold deposits were found and where Johannesburg was built.
The rand replaced Pound Sterling as legal tender in South Africa on 14 February 1961 replacing the pound (1 rand being valued at 10 shillings), just months before South Africa left the Commonwealth to become a republic on 31 May 1961.
Between 1961 to 1991, the banknotes' front face had the face of Jan van Riebeeck (OR IS IT SEE INTERESTING STORY BELOW), with the first issues carrying just his face.
 
NUMISTA RARITY INDEX NUMBER 76: Numista produces an index to show the approximate rarity of coin, banknote. This index ranges from 1 to 100, with 1 representing the most common items and 100 representing the most rare.
 
JAN VAN RIEBEECK OR SOMEONE ELSE?
There are an interesting true story of the portrait on 30 different old South African banknotes since 1948 to 1994.
Chiselled features, flowing locks and a manicured moustache. Its a face that has been immortalized in South African history books.
But, as it turns out, this portrait is not of Jan van Riebeeck, but most likely of another Dutch local Bartholomeus Vermuyden who never even set foot in South Africa.
The image of the supposed Jan van Riebeeck at a time before computers or Google was derived from a portrait painting of Dirck Craey which is now in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. In 1984 it was concluded that the painting from which the image was borrowed was not of Van Riebeeck, the man who arrived with three ships in Table Bay in 1652 but probably that of another Dutchman named Bartholomeus Vermuyden.
In what is believed to be an actual portrait of the Dutch settler, also on display at the Rijksmuseum, Van Riebeecks appearance is markedly different from the face on South Africas old currency.
 
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