2009 Protea Coin Series - 1/10 GOLD COIN --- CRAZY R1 START

National Anthem Gold Coin - R5 (1/10 oz) - Limited Edition: 3000

AUCTIONS STARTS AT R1 WITH NO RESERVE

This coin come boxed as received from the South African MINT and contains all Certificate of Authenticity!

Comes with a Certificate of Authencity from the SA Mint

Enclosed in a  SA Mint Leatherette Case

Coin is protected in a capsule

Proof Coin

The National Anthem of South Africa

The 2009 Protea Series once again features a uniquely historical issue.

The South African National Anthem pulls together two anthems. Before South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, the country had two anthems – one official and one unofficial. The official anthem was Die Stem (The Call of South Africa) which was written as a poem by CJ Langenhoven in 1918 and set to music by a Reverend ML de Villiers in 1921 and became the accepted national anthem in 1957.

The unofficial anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, was written and composed in 1897 by Enoch Mankayi Sontonga, a teacher at a mission station. It was originally written in isiXhosa as a hymn. Seven additional stanzas were later added by the poet Samuel Mqhayi and the song quickly became popular. In 1912, at the first meeting of the South African Native National Congress (forerunner of the African National Congress) it was sung after the closing prayer. The ANC adopted it as its official closing anthem in 1925 and the song became a symbol of independence and resistance during the struggle against apartheid. It is also interesting to note that Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika is still the national anthem of Tanzania and Zambia.

In 1994, the year of the first South African democratic election, the two anthems were merged into one! All three coins depict the two writers of the new anthem, CJ Langenhoven and Enoch Sontonga, interwoven and joined by musical notes of the first stanza of each of the combined anthems. It is an odd coincidence that both men were born in 1873 and both men became teachers.