World coins chat: Botswana

Botswana is named after the Tswana tribe that lives in the region. Before independence from Britain in 1966 it was known as Bechuanaland. Bechuanaland became a protectorate in 1885 because the British feared growing German and Boer influence over the area. The southern part of Bechuanaland was incorporated into Cape Colony and is now part of South Africa, but the northern part stayed separate. An oddity was that Bechuanaland was governed from Mafeking, which lies in South Africa. After independence Gaborone became the capital.

The British never handed Bechuanaland over to South Africa, especially after WW2 due to the apartheid policies that isolated South Africa diplomatically.

Botswana used British and South African currency until it introduced the Pula in 1976 at par with ZAR. The Pula proved a stronger currency that ZAR and now trades close to 10 to USD and 0.8 per Rand.

The first coin series was issued from 1976. Smaller size coins were introduced in 1998 with a small design update in 2013.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/botswana-1.html

Interestingly, Botswana is the only country in Africa to have remained a democracy since 1966, and has the highest Human Development Index in sub-Saharan Africa (the five African nations with higher HDIs all lie either north of the Sahara or are islands off of the mainland) - more developed than South Africa! Apparently, this good government, growth, and development stems from the good investment of money from the country's diamond exports. Because of Botswana's peace and stability, tourism is another big draw. The downside - a huge proportion of the population, up to 25%, is infected with HIV. However efforts are being made to curb this pandemic.

Botswana has a low population density and only 2,155,000 people live there, so not a lot of coins are produced and my Botswana collection is not particularly impressive:

When he got independence on 1966, it was one of the 25 poorest in the world, now ranked among the continent's most prosperous. This is the only country in the world that has been able to reach an average annual growth of nearly 9% during the period 1970-2000.
This prosperity has repercussed on coins size which contrary to the usual have swelled over the years.

Fun fact: Botswana and Zambia share the shortest total international border at about 150 meters.



There are shorter international border segments, for example between Morocco and a Spanish island that is now attached to the African continent, but the total length of the several segments between them is much higher (Ceuta, Melilla).

I enjoyed reading this thread. This is why I collect coins: for history and art.

Coincidentally, I recently posted a 1976 Botswana coin set for swap in my Africa coins thread:

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic88119.html

Hi colleagues
Archeology yoke is related to our hobby. And just last week a report was published, scientists by findings determine the location of the state of Botswana-from there, 200,000 years ago BC ,Homo Sapiens began to expand to Asia, Europe, etc.
So friends it's our common home -so with respect to this environment !

Ahoj Ivan

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/oct/28/ancestral-home-of-modern-humans-is-in-botswana-study-finds