Ora (currency) Ora (currency) The Ora (symbol:Φ, ) is the local currency of Orania, an Afrikaner enclave in South Africa. It is pegged at par with the South African rand. The name, recalling that of the town where it circulates, derives from Latin "aurum", meaning "gold". The currency is not sanctioned by the South African Reserve Bank. The first notes were issued in April 2004 to provide an internal currency for Orania as part of its quest for self-determination. The idea of the Ora originated in 2002, when Professor Johan van Zyl argued that a community that intended to empower itself should
Optimum currency area rationale behind the creation of the euro is that the individual countries of Europe do not each form an optimal currency area, but that Europe as a whole does. The creation of the euro is often cited because it provides the most modern and largest-scale case study of an attempt to identify an optimum currency area, and provides a comparative before-and-after model by which to test the principles of the theory. In theory, an optimal currency area could also be smaller than a country. Some economists have argued that the United States, for example, has some regions that do not