Decimal Day three of the six new coins. Small booklets were made available containing some or all of the new denominations. The old halfpenny was withdrawn from circulation on 31 July 1969, and the half-crown (2s 6d) followed on 31 December to ease the transition. (The farthing had last been minted in 1956 and had ceased to be legal tender in 1960.) There was a substantial publicity campaign in the weeks before Decimalisation Day, including a song by Max Bygraves called "Decimalisation". The BBC broadcast a series of five-minute programmes, "Decimal Five", to which The Scaffold contributed some specially written tunes. ITV
Coins of the South African rand coins of the Republic were the following: The coins initially had the same size as the former South African coins. All except the and 1 cent coins were in silver. The previous South African farthing coin (¼d) and half-a-crown (s) were not continued in decimal currency. In addition, two bullion coins with denominations of 1 rand and 2 rand were issued, replacing the gold half-pound and pound coins introduced in 1952. Both the pound and the rand gold coins matched the specifications of the British half-sovereign and sovereign (minted, among others, at the Pretoria branch mint until 1932), including the