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Flip a 50c coin for Bafana!
7 May 2002
Win or lose, nothing gets South Africa’s adrenaline rushing like the national soccer team, Bafana Bafana. To celebrate the team’s 10th anniversary – and their World Cup appearance in Korea and Japan – the SA Mint has launched a new series of collector’s coins, and issued over nine million special 50 cent coins in support of ‘The Boys’.
Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni struck the first 50c circulation coin, depicting a South African soccer player, on 6 May at the South African Mint in Pretoria.
This is the first time that a sporting theme has appeared on a circulation coin in South Africa. Circulation coins usually depict the same reverse design every year. The first modern coin to break this tradition was the Inauguration R5 coin issued to celebrate South Africa’s new democracy in 1994, followed in 2000 by the Nelson Mandela R5 coin.
For the numismatists, the Mint has also issued
a new series of Protea gold and silver collectors’ coins celebrating South Africa’s most popular sport - a one ounce R25 gold coin with a soccer player striking a ball, a one-tenth ounce R5 gold coin with a soccer player heading a ball, and a R1 silver coin portraying a goalkeeper in action.
Next year, the Mint plans to issue a similar series of coins with cricket designs to coincide with the 2003 Cricket World Cup, being hosted in South Africa.
Bafana Bafana
The national team, nicknamed Bafana Bafana, which means 'The Boys', is extraordinarily erratic, beating giants, then succumbing to minnows. Their proudest moment came when we won the African Cup of Nations on home turf in 1996 – having failed even to qualify for the previous cup. 
The people's game
Football – or soccer, as we call it – is the most widely played sport in South Africa, with its traditional support base in the black community. Soccer is intensely followed, and the quality of the local game keeps improving – as demonstrated by the increasing number of South African players-in-exile among the glamorous European clubs.
Sport in SA
It’s the national religion. Transcending race, politics or language group, sport unites the country - and not just the male half of it. When a South African team wins, a cacophony of hooting, cheering, banging of dustbin lids, trumpeting on cow horns and fireworks reverberates across the largest cities. The national adrenaline goes into overdrive. Maybe even the GDP goes
up. Just don’t look too cheerful on the Monday morning after a dismal sporting weekend!
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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Heads or... goals! South Africa's soccer-look 50 cent piece
(Picture: SA Mint) |
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 The SA Mint
The SA Mint offers a variety of special coins products, including uncirculated sets, proof sets and various special series – and of course the famous Krugerrands. Find out more, and get details of local and international distributors, on the SA Mint web site.
Coin World
Coin World, the SA Mint’s retail outlet and museum, is a major tourist attraction situated between Johannesburg and Pretoria. Specialised services for tourists include transport, interpreters, various tours through the world’s most modern Mint - and the chance of striking
your own proof coin on ‘Oom Paul’, one of the world’s oldest working mint presses. Find out more
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