In establishing the SARB, the primary objective was simple: to restore and maintain order in the issue and circulation of domestic currency, and restore the gold standard to the pre-World War I rate of exchange.
From the archives, the first Board meeting minutes, dated 29 July 1921 at 10:00, disclose that the first order of business entailed “the purchase of property in Pretoria for £ 000 and the first orders of banknotes”. The former was finalised in the late 1920s, while the first batch of banknotes ordered from England was issued to the public on 19 April 1922.