Gold Krugerrands – Bullion Coins From South Africa

Krugerrands are among the world’s most popular gold bullion coins. Easy to recognize, international trade for these coins is readily acceptable. Krugerrands represent the largest quantity of gold coins in existence. Since 1967, they have surpassed 54 million minted.

The coins originally contained one troy ounce of pure gold. Three other sizes were later added, consisting of coins with one-half, one-fourth, and one-tenth ounces of gold. Because they are legal tender, the Krugerrand could be transported into many other countries without the payment of import taxes.

Paul Kruger is pictured on the obverse side of the coin. He was the last and longest-serving president of the old South African Republic that was defeated by the British. The South African Springbok gazelle is on the reverse. The coins popularity is based less on its aesthetics then on its trading convenience.

The Krugerrand represents the large deposits of gold that, since the 1880s, have been mined from South Africa’s 60-mile-long east-west stretch of Witwatersrand hills and mountains. Krugerrands were the first gold bullion coins introduced as legal tender in a country. South Africa sought to use them to replace the difficult trade of gold bars.

Until 1974, U.S. citizens were not allowed to own gold bullion. But as legal tender foreign coins, they could own Krugerrands. Purchases of the Kruggerrand could not be made in the United States from 1985 through 1994, when the coin was banded in many countries across the world because of South African apartheid policies. The ban did not affect the active trade market already occurring in the U.S., but it did give American Gold Eagles opportunity to gain control of the U.S. market.

Kruggerands are alloyed with copper. One-twelfth copper is mixed with eleven-twelfths gold, hardening the coins and making them resilient to scratches. The addition of copper pushes the actual weight of the one-ounce coin above the troy ounce of 31.1 grams to about 33 grams.

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