Owner Comments:
Joint Finest Known PFUC! (1/114)
Total Graded: 340
Mintage: 1,725
Part of the PROTEA SERIES for the S1R.
The South African Mint released attractive designs and special themes to commemorate special events or awards. Each reverse bears a different design based on the theme for that year.
The 2009 commemorative coin issue celebrates the South African National Anthem.
The national anthem of South Africa was adopted in 1997 and is a hybrid song combining extracts of the 19th century Xhosa hymn "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" (English: "God Bless Africa", lit. '"Lord Bless Africa"') and the Afrikaans song that was used as the South African national anthem, "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" (English: "The Voice of South Africa").
Until the early 1990s, the South Africa's national anthem was "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika", an Afrikaans-language song that chronicled the Voortrekkers and their "Great Trek". "Die Stem" is a poem written by C. J. Langenhoven in 1918 and was set to music by Marthinus Lourens de Villiers in 1921.
"Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" was composed by a Methodist school teacher named Enoch Sontonga in 1897. It was first sung as a church hymn but later became an act of political defiance against the apartheid regime.
The South African government adopted both songs as dual national anthems in 1994, when they were performed at Nelson Mandela's inauguration.
Obverse
The obverse has an image of the King Protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower of South Africa.
Centered top, the name of the country in English: SOUTH AFRICA.
Below, the date of issue: * 2009 *.
Designer: Arthur L. Sutherland (ALS)
Reverse
A three-quarter bust of Langenhoven and a three-shoulder and bust of Sontonga, with music notes separating the figures.
Lettering: On the left the denomination R1. The names of CJ Langenhoven and Enoch Sontonga. A line of each of the anthems and composition date.
Designer: Aldrid Minnie (AM)