Krugerrands

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The South African Chamber of Mines (S.A.M.) had an inspired idea to help market South African gold. It was to issue a one ounce bullion coin, to be sold at a very low premium over the intrinsic gold value.
Krugerrands were first minted and issued in 1967, and have been produced every year since. They have legal tender status in South Africa, which allowed them to be imported into many, but not all, countries without import taxes, duty or VAT.

One Ounce of Fine Gold
Originally only one size was issued, which contained one full troy ounce (31.1035 grams) of fine gold. This was originally known as a Krugerrand, or Kruger, for short. From 1980, three other sizes were introduced, namely a half, quarter, and tenth ounce size. Because of these, the original Krugerrand is sometimes referred to as a "full" or "one ounce" Kruger or Krugerrand, although within the trade, the word Kruger or Krugerrand is understood to be the full sized original one ounce version.
At the time of the kruger's introduction, it was not legally possible for British residents to acquire bullion gold coins, so that the Krugerrand was almost unknown in Britain until 1971.

Low Premium over Gold
According to the publicity at the time, the Kruger was to be made available to world bullion dealers at a 3% premium over the current gold fix, so that after distribution costs, the coins would be available to investors in quantity at about 4% to 5% over intrinsic gold values, and possibly 10% premium for single pieces.

Smaller Sizes
The fractional sizes were issued at higher premiums to bullion dealers of 5%, 7%, and 9% respectively. The fractional coins have never been as popular as the full one ounce coins, usually only being purchased as singles, so that in practice, it would usually cost 10% to 15% premium for the half and quarter ounce, and from 20% to 50% premium for the tenth ounce, most of which seem to have been used in jewellery. Most bullion houses do not want the bother of handling small quantities of low value coins.
As an example of this, in the 1970's we, as a small provincial dealer, would frequently handle 500 Krugerrands in a single day, but a purchase of 100 tenth Krugerrands was a major event, yet it was only ¹/₅₀th the size of deal!
Krugers were never intended to be an aesthetically pleasing coin, just a lump of gold with a known weight and value. They certainly cannot be called pretty.

VAT
In Britain VAT was imposed on all coins, except antiques. In January 1995, this was relaxed on almost all second-hand goods, including gold coins. This means that existing privately owned coins can be traded by dealers under a "special scheme" whereby the only VAT chargeable is on the dealers margin, which is negligible. Because VAT is still payable on any "new" coins, it is more difficult and expensive to buy and sell large quantities of bullion coins.

Throughout the whole of this time, we have maintained a dealing service for both collectors and investors in bullion and numismatic coins. During the period from 1965 to 1971, we were one of only a small number of dealers who were granted a dealers licence.

The following table summarises the specifications of all the sizes.

Size	Denomination	Weight	Fineness	Gold Content	Gold Content
		Grams	/1.000	Grams	Troy Ounces
Full	10 Rands	33.9305	.917	31.104	1.0000
Half	5 Rands	16.9653	.917	15.552	0.5000
Quarter	2.5 Rands	8.4826	.917	7.776	0.2500
Tenth	1 Rand	3.3931	.917	3.110	0.1000

We don't try to maintain a current price quote on our website. Please contact us if you wish to buy or sell Krugerrands.

At the last update of this page, we could offer Krugerrands at £15 premium for singles, and £10 premium for quantity of ten or more, over the intrinsic bullion price.

Postage & Packing:
UK: At buyer's Risk £3.50 or
Fully Insured £9 (Usually by Royal Mail Special Delivery)
USA: Airmail at buyer's risk $10 or
Fully Insured $20
For further details, please see our Postage & Packing page.

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Tax Free Gold
Investment gold, including most gold coins, became exempt from VAT on January 1st, 2000.
For further information, and offers of tax free gold bullion coins, please visit our new "Tax Free Gold" web site.

USA / Canada. Please read our page Information for US & Canada clients.

If you want to find the value of a coin you own, please take a look at our page I've Found An Old Coin, What's It Worth?