GOLD: South Africa launches 22-carat coin for 2000
By Nicol Degli Innocenti in Johannesburg
South Africa yesterday took advantage of a rising gold price to launch a millennium version of the world's best-selling gold bullion coin.
The 22-carat Krugerrand 2000 gold coin was launched yesterday by the mint in Johannesburg in four different sizes: the classic one ounce of gold, half an ounce, one quarter and one tenth of an ounce.
The country, the world's biggest gold producer, is the first to introduce a gold bullion coin to celebrate the end of the millennium. The Reserve Bank has granted special permission for the first ever release before the date inscribed on the coin.
According to Rand Refinery, responsible for marketing the krugerrand worldwide, demand for the newly-minted coins is expected to exceed 4m ounces in 1999 - almost four times the level in 1996. Ordinary krugerrands are trading at $325-$330 an ounce. The Krugerrand 2000 will be launched in New York today.
Although South Africa never stopped producing gold coins, demand and sales suffered because of international sanctions imposed on the apartheid regime. Production and sales fell drastically from the mid-1980s and have not fully recovered, even though it remains the world's most actively traded gold bullion coin in the secondary market.
However, the past continues to haunt the new South Africa. Attention yesterday focused on the side of the coin with the Year 2000 and outline of a springbok.
The other side, which still bears the image of Paul Kruger, the 19th century Boer who was president of the original South African republic, was discreetly hidden.
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