R500 note and R10 coin from the Reserve Bank of South Africa

There is considerable discussion over whether the nation should consider issuing bigger denomination coins and notes as South Africans struggle with rising inflation and rising costs of life.

According to the South African Reserve Bank, ongoing study is being done to decide whether to switch to the higher value coin. It said that this involves the introduction of the R10 and bigger value bills like the R500.

The (most recent) study's findings indicated that South Africa is not prepared to introduce an R500 banknote, and among the reasons given were that the introduction is only valid when the largest denomination—in our instance, R200—is the most widely used currency.

However, this is not the situation in South Africa, where the R100 banknote is the most widely used. The R200 is still utilized as a store of value, which is another factor that disqualifies a change, according to the bank.

The Reserve Bank's investigation concluded that there is an economic basis for launching a R10 coin, but the public does not appear to be interested in doing so.

The SARB weighs the rand's purchasing power, the overall direction of inflation, and public opinion when deciding whether or not to switch to new denominations.

According to data released at the end of 2021, there were an average of 776.6 million physical banknotes in circulation outside of the SARB between March 2020 and June 2021, making the R100 denomination the most popular in terms of volume.

The R200 denomination came next, with an average of 307.3 million banknotes being in circulation at the same time.

The majority of other banknote denominations that were in circulation during this time period “remain[ed] rather steady, but the quantity of coins in circulation outside of the SARB by far exceeded that of banknotes, due to the variety of minor values,” according to the central bank.