The South African Bank Note Company (Pty) Ltd.

Like most other civilisations in the mid 1700s, South Africa's Cape region, the only developed area in the then Dutch colony, solely used coins as legal tender. Paper money was only introduced in 1782 when the Dutch Governor, Van Plettenberg, was unable to get coinage sufficient for the needs of the settlement from the Netherlands. This first paper money was issued in rix dollar and stiver denominations which was the Capetonian currency of the time.

As there was no printing press in the Cape, all the notes had to be handwritten. They featured a Government fiscal hand-stamp indicating their value and the authority date of the issue.

In general, all Government issues of paper-money were produced locally. This however, was not the case with the notes issued by the private, the imperial and the other large banks.

The first bank to be established in the Cape was state bank, Lombard Bank, which opened its doors in Cape Town in 1793 with the intention of bringing additional money into circulation. Lombard Bank issued Government notes until it was forced out of business by private banks in 1883.

The first of these private banks, the Cape of Good Hope Bank, opened in 1837. As the country was developed, trade expanded and around 30 private banks sprang up between 1837 and 1882, most of which issued their own paper money. In addition, three large trading houses and one mining firm also issued their own paper money between 1850 and 1860. However, in 1877, an imperial bank, the Standard Bank of British South Africa Ltd., opened, and soon to be followed by two others, all of which issued their own paper money. Properly conducted and with large capital behind them, they opened branches throughout the colony and took over many of the remaining private banks. By 1892 they had absorbed all but one, the Stellenbosch District Bank, which still exists today.

At the time of Union in 1910, the three imperial banks, joined by a comparative newcomer from the Transvaal, were the only survivors issuing paper money in their own name in the Cape.

While most Government issues of paper money were produced locally, the private, imperial, and other large banks continued to print their banknotes in England. This remained largely the case until 1963, five years after the South African Bank Note Company (SABN) (Pty) Ltd. was established, at which point the printing of banknotes began in South Africa in earnest. The Rand was introduced as the national currency of South Africa at the birth of South Africa's independence in 1961, thereby replacing the then currency, the South African Pound. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB), established in 1921, took control over the new national currency and commenced with withdrawing the old pound sterling currency banknotes, and thereby replacing them with notes of the new currency

This state of affairs remained so until 1963, when the South Africa Bank Note Company was established in the Republic of South Africa. Ever since, this factory has taken care of the requirements of the S.A. Reserve Bank.

The first series of rand banknotes were introduced in 1961 in denominations of 1, 2, 10 and 20 rand with similar designs and colours to the preceding pound notes to ease the transition. These new banknotes bore the image of Jan van Riebeeck, the first V.O.C. administrator of Cape Town. Like the last pound notes, they came in two variants, one with English written first and the other with Afrikaans written first. This practice was continued in the 1966 series which included the first 5 rand notes but did not include the 20 rand denomination.

The 1978 series began with denominations of 2, 5 and 10 rand, with 20 and 50 rand introduced in 1984. This series saw a major design change. In addition, the series has only one variant for each denomination of note. Afrikaans was the first language on the 2, 10 and 50 rand, while English was the first language on 5 and 20 rand. The notes bore the image of Jan van Riebeeck.

In the 1990s, the notes were redesigned with images of the Big Five wildlife species. With the 2 and 5 rand coins replacing notes, notes were introduced in 1994 for 100 and 200 rand.

The 2005 series has the same principal design, but with additional security features.