THE South African Reserve Bank (SARB) will be launching its first commemorative banknote, in celebration of the first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela’s birth centenary.
The notes will include the R10, R20, R50, R100 and R200.
"As part of the celebrations, the South African Mint, a subsidiary of the SARB, will also be issuing a new commemorative circulation R5 coin.
As part of the preparations for the launch, test packs of the commemorative banknotes were made available to members of the broader cash industry to allow them to make adequate preparations in relation to issues such as adaption's of cash processing and cash dispensing machines, ticketing machines and so forth," the Bank said.
The bank explained that while test packs were governed by strict confidentiality provisions, it has come to the SARB’s attention that certain breaches had occurred.
"As a result some of the designs have been circulating on social media"
According to the bank in order to avoid confusion and unnecessary speculation, the SARB has decided to release all the designs ahead of the official launch scheduled for 13 July 2018.
