South Africans have ‘no appetite’ for R10 coin or R500 note – SA Reserve Bank
The R100 note remains the most widely circulated banknote in the country
With the rising cost of living and the volatile rand on the international market dominating news headlines and hitting South Africans’ pockets, recent talk in money circles has been about whether or not the country’s fiscal denominations should change.
Debate is centred around a potential R10 coin and R500 note for South Africa.
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Speaking to Business Tech recently, the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) says it constantly carries out research to determine whether or not to transition to higher denomination coins and bank notes.
‘The results of the latest study revealed that South Africa is not ready for a R500 banknote,’ said the reserve bank.
‘Some of the reasons stipulated were that the introduction is only valid when the highest denomination, R200 in our case, is the most circulated banknote.
‘This is, however, not the case in South Africa as the R100 denomination is the most circulated note.
‘The other reason is whether the R200 note is still used as a store of value – which it is – and therefore does not warrant a change,’ said the bank.
While the reserve bank’s study found that there is an economic case for introducing a R10 coin, there is no appetite from the South African public.
Before transitioning to new denominations, the reserve bank considers the buying power of the rand, the general trend of inflation, and public perception.
Data published at the end of last year shows that in terms of volume, the R100 note is the most favoured bank note, with an average of 776.6 million banknotes in circulation outside of the SA Reserve Bank between March 2020 and June 2021.
This was followed by the R200 denomination, with an average of 307.3 million banknotes in circulation during the same period.
‘Most of the other denominations of banknotes in issue remained relatively stable during this period, while the number of coins in circulation outside of the SARB by far exceeded those of banknotes, owing to the range of small denominations,’ said the SARB.
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