Which country's currency is known as the rand?

South Africa’s currency is the rand.

The rand was introduced in 1961, replacing the South African pound as the country moved to decimal currency. Its name comes from the Witwatersrand, the ridge associated with Johannesburg and South Africa’s historic gold-mining region. The currency’s ISO code is ZAR, while its everyday symbol is R.

One rand is divided into 100 cents. The South African Reserve Bank issues the currency, which is also legal tender in the Common Monetary Area alongside national currencies in Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini. Those countries’ dollars, loti and lilangeni are linked to the rand at parity.

A common mix-up is assuming every country that accepts rand has the rand as its national currency. South Africa is the country whose official currency is the rand; Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini retain their own currencies, even though the rand circulates widely there. Botswana used the rand historically, but replaced it with the pula in 1976.