The South African rand, or simply the rand, is the official currency of the Southern African Common Monetary Area: South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini. It is subdivided into 100 cents, and a comma separates the rand and cents.
Two generations of older notes and coins, later replaced with the "Big Five" notes, which were in turn replaced to show the face of Nelson Mandela in 2012.
A 5 rand bimetallic coin issued in 2004.
Rand banknotes and coins.
A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a system of money in common use within a specific environment over time, especially for people in a nation state. Under this definition, the British Pound sterling (£), euros (€), Japanese yen (¥), and U.S. dollars (US$) are examples of (government-issued) fiat currencies. Currencies may act as stores of value and be traded between nations in foreign exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies. Currencies in this sense are either chosen by users or decreed by governments, and each type has limited boundaries of acceptance; i.e., legal tender laws may require a particular unit of account for payments to government agencies.
Cowry shells being used as money by an Arab trader
The world's oldest coin, created in the ancient Kingdom of Lydia
Song dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money
A list of exchange rates for various base currencies given by a money changer in Thailand, with the Thailand Baht as the counter (or quote) currency. Note the Korean currency code should be KRW.
