New South African Rand Banknotes For 2023

In early May 2023, the South African Reserve Bank announced the introduction of new South African Rand banknotes. Starting May 4, 2023, the new banknotes will begin to circulate. The old versions remain legal tender and will circulate among this new series. These banknotes have an updated design and new added security features to combat counterfeiters.

The first South African banknotes to feature Nelson Mandela were the sixth series of banknotes initially released in 2012. They featured Mandela on the front and the Big 5 animals on the reverse. An example from this series is the green South Africa 10 Rand, 2015 ND. Its obverse features the coat of arms of South Africa and a portrait of Nelson Mandela. The back of the paper bill depicts rhinoceros.

The Seventh series followed in 2018. This generation of banknotes featured Mandela on the front and on the reverse were images of locations dear to his life and struggle, also a modern statue of him too. The brown South Africa 20 Rand, 2018 commemorates Mandela Centenary (1918-2018), it’s obverse design depicts the country’s coat of arms and a picture of president Nelson Mandela. The reverse features a young Mandela, who was also known as Madiba, wearing a traditional attire. The Mandela House in Soweto is also shown in the background.

The 2023 Eighth series will come in the same denominations (10, 20, 50, 100, 200 Rand) as the current series. All 5 of the banknotes still feature Nelson Mandela on the obverse side as well as the South African Coat of arms on the upper left-hand corner and South African Reserve Bank text. The most distinguishing feature is the rings behind Mandela’s head. They consist of the South Africa flag as well as text with parts of the South African constitution. On the lower right hand corner are SPARK®Live Truspin color changing animals.

The banknotes still maintain the “Big 5” animals in the design, same as previous generations. The green 20 Rand feature 2 rhinos. The brown 20 Rand feature a 3 elephants, while the purple 50 Rand features 2 lions. On the blue 100 Rand is an image of 2 cape buffalo’s and the orange 200 Rand features a leopard and her cub. The following languages appear on the back of the banknotes: 10 Rand Afrikaans and Siswati, 20 Rand Setswana and isiNdebele, 50 Rand isiXhosa and Tshivenda, 100 Rand Sesotho sa Leboa/Sepedi and Xitsonga, 200 Rand isiZulu and Sesotho. What do you think about the new banknotes?