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1966 Botswana 50 Cents Obverse
1966 Botswana 50 Cent Obverse

1966 Botswana 50 Cents Obverse
1966 Botswana 50 Cent Reverse

A Brief History of Botswana

British Protectorate
The area known today as Botswana came under British protection when King Khama III of the Bamangwato Tribe invited them in to stop encroaching Boers and Ndebele from attacking his lands in 1885. Botswana, which was then known as Bechuanaland, almost became a part of the Union of South Africa in 1910, but this was put off for years until the rise of Apartheid in South Africa following the 1948 SA General Election, which made this impractical.

Independence
The Post-War ‘Winds of Change’ of the 1950s saw African colonies move towards independence. At the start of the 1960s, a new capital, Gaborone was constructed to house the soon to be independent country. In 1966, British Bechuanland was granted independence as a commonwealth republic, and was renamed Botswana.

Sir Seretsi Khama
Botswana was perhaps fortunate to have this man as its first president. King of the Bamangwato tribe, Khama (a descendent of the King who had sought British protection in 1885) had met and married a white English woman, Ruth Williams, whom he had met whilst training as a Barrister in England in 1946. Although the controversy over bi-racial marriage had caused a furore that had led to his dethronement and exile, he and his white wife retained the popularity of his tribe and the ordinary people of Bechuanaland, and he eventually returned and became a powerful political force in the lead up to the country’s independence. Unhindered by the Marxist ideology or narrow-minded racism that had metaphorically lobotomised the leaders of many other independence movements in Africa, Sir Seretsi Khama, advocated a free-market, small government approach that strenuously protected private property rights and encouraged economic development. This turned Botswana from being one of the poorest nations on the continent to one of the richest and fastest growing economies in the world, whilst other newly independent African nations (many of which had access to greater natural resources than Botswana) almost inevitably degenerated into corruption, civil war and dictatorship.

Present Day
Today, despite lacking the resources blessing many other African nations (with the exception of diamonds) and having little in the way of serviceable agricultural land, Botswana enjoys a high GDP per capita of $13,100 per year (according to the CIA world Factbook), making it a middle-ranking nation in terms of the prosperity of its people.

Botswanan Coins
The currency of Botswana is the Pula (Rain, a precious commodity in a desert country like Botswana), which is subdivided into 100 Thebe (shield). This currency was introduced in 1976 to replace the South African Rand in circulation at the time.
The first coins of this currency were the 1 and 2 Thebe aluminium coins, the 5 Thebe Bronze coin, and the 10, 20 and 50 Thebe and 1 Pula coins struck in cupro-nickel. Since then, the 1 and 2 Thebe coins have been withdrawn from circulation and the others reduced in size. The 2 Pula coin was introduced in 1994, followed by a bi-metallic 5 Pula coin in 2000.

For Sale and Wanted
If you are interested in coins from Botswana please see our product index:-
Botswanan Coins

Gold Coins
We also have gold coins from Botswana on our taxfreegold website:-
Botswanan Gold Coins



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