what are krugerrands 
krugerrands are gold coins that were minted by the republic of south africa in 1967 to help promote south african gold to the international markets and to make it possible for individuals to own gold krugerrands are among the most frequently traded gold coins in the world market 1the coins have legal tender status in south africa although krugerrands were never assigned a rand zar value krugerrands were designed to derive their value exclusively from the price of gold at the time they are traded if the price of gold changes so does the price of krugerrands 2krugerrands the gold cointhe face of a krugerrand coin bears the image of paul kruger who was president of the south african republic from 1883 to 1900 the coin s name comes from combining paul kruger s surname with rand south africa s national currency the reverse of the coin portrays a galloping springbok antelope which is one of south africa s national symbols 4 paul kruger held office when one of the world s most profitable mines durban deep was founded in 1896 he also was president during the witwatersrand gold rush which led to the founding of johannesburg one of south africa s largest cities the johannesburg stock exchange jse trades in krugerrands through a well regulated secondary market in the same way as any listed equity market instrument with quoted prices based on the weight of the coins 5 new krugerrands are issued by the south african reserve bank sarb where they can be redeemed 6 because of its legal tender status in south africa the krugerrand was minted to be more resilient to wear than the 24 karat gold coins used for decoration medals the krugerrand is made of 22 karats or 91 67 gold with 8 33 copper alloy 7