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South Africa – ruled by Elizabeth II – February 1952 – Present
Jan van Riebeeck
1964 Silver 20 Cents 28mm (11.29 grams) 0.500 Silver (0.1818 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 61
UNITY IS STRENGTH * EENDRAG MAAK MAG, Bust of Jan van Riebeeck, founder of Cape Town, facing 1/4 right surrounded by bilingual English/Afrikaans legend
SOUTH AFRICA·1961·SUID-AFRIKA K G 20C., Shield of South Africa surrounded by denomination, date, and bilingual English/Afrikaans legend
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
Johan Anthoniszoon “Jan” van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator who arrived in Cape Town in the Dutch Cape Colony at the behest of the Dutch East India Company.
Jan van Riebeeck arrives in Table Bay in April 1652, painted by Charles Davidson Bell
Biography
Van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg, as the son of a surgeon. He grew up in Schiedam, where he married 19-year-old Maria de la Quellerie on 28 March 1649. She died in Malacca, now part of Malaysia, on 2 November 1664, at the age of 35. The couple had eight or nine children, most of whom did not survive infancy. Their son Abraham van Riebeeck, born at the Cape, later became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.
Joining the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) (Dutch East India Company) in 1639, he served in a number of posts, including that of an assistant surgeon in the Batavia in the East Indies.
He was head of the VOC trading post in Tonkin, Indochina.
In 1643, Riebeeck travelled with Jan van Elseracq to the VOC outpost at Dejima in Japan. Seven years later in 1650, he proposed selling hides of South African wild animals to Japan.
In 1651, he volunteered to undertake the command of the initial Dutch settlement in the future South Africa. He landed three ships (Dromedaris; Reijger and Goede Hoop) at the future Cape Town on 6 April 1652 and fortified the site as a way station for the VOC trade route between the Netherlands and the East Indies. The primary purpose of this way station was to provide fresh provisions for the VOC fleets sailing between the Dutch Republic and Batavia, as deaths en route were very high. The Walvisch and the Oliphant arrived later in 1652, having had 130 burials at sea.
Van Riebeeck was Commander of the Cape from 1652 to 1662; he was charged with building a fort, with improving the natural anchorage at Table Bay, planting cereals, fruit, and vegetables, and obtaining livestock from the indigenous Khoi people. In the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, a few wild almond trees still survive. The initial fort, named Fort de Goede Hoop (‘Fort of Good Hope’) was made of mud, clay, and timber, and had four corners or bastions. This fort was replaced by the Castle of Good Hope, built between 1666 and 1679 after van Riebeeck had left the Cape.
Van Riebeeck was joined at the Cape by a fellow Culemborger Roelof de Man (1634-1663), who arrived in January 1654 on board the ship Naerden. Roelof came as the colony bookkeeper and was later promoted to second-in-charge.
Van Riebeeck reported the first comet discovered from South Africa, C/1652 Y1, which was spotted on 17 December 1652.
In his time at the Cape, Van Riebeeck oversaw a sustained, systematic effort to establish an impressive range of useful plants in the novel conditions on the Cape Peninsula – in the process changing the natural environment forever. Some of these, including grapes, cereals, ground nuts, potatoes, apples, and citrus, had an important and lasting influence on the societies and economies of the region. The daily diary entries kept throughout his time at the Cape (VOC policy) provided the basis for future exploration of the natural environment and its natural resources. Careful reading of his diaries indicate that some of his knowledge was learned from the indigenous peoples inhabiting the region.
He died in Batavia (now renamed Jakarta) on Java in 1677.
Legacy in South Africa
Jan van Riebeeck is of cultural and historical significance to South Africa. Many of the Afrikaner population view him as the founding father of their nation. This regard was also prevalent in that his image appeared ubiquitously on stamps and the South African currency from the 1940s up until 1993 when the South African Reserve Bank changed the currency to an apolitical design of the fauna and flora of the region. The image used on the currency notes was not that of Van Riebeeck, but of Bartholomeus Vermuyden.
6 April used to be known as Van Riebeeck’s Day, and later as Founders’ Day but the holiday was abolished by the ANC government after the elections of 1994. His image no longer features on any official currency or stamps, but statues of him and his wife remain in Adderley Street, Cape Town. The coat of arms of the city of Cape Town is based on the Van Riebeeck family coat of arms.
Many South African towns and villages have streets named after him. Riebeek-Kasteel is one of the oldest towns in South Africa, situated 75 km from Cape Town in the Riebeek Valley together with its sister town Riebeek West.
Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck is an Afrikaans high school in Cape Town.
 Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is the Queen of 16 of the 53 member states in the Commonwealth of Nations . She is also Head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England .
Upon her accession on 6 February 1952, Elizabeth became Head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom , Canada , Australia , New Zealand , South Africa , Pakistan and Ceylon . Her coronation the following year was the first to be televised. From 1956 to 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and some realms became republics. Today, in addition to the first four of the aforementioned countries, Elizabeth is Queen of Jamaica , Barbados , the Bahamas , Grenada , Papua New Guinea , Solomon Islands , Tuvalu , Saint Lucia , Saint Vincent and the Grenadines , Belize , Antigua and Barbuda , and Saint Kitts and Nevis . She is the longest-lived and, after her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria , the second longest-reigning British monarch.
Elizabeth was born in London and educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne as George VI on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive . She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War , in which she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service . In 1947, she married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , with whom she has four children: Charles , Anne , Andrew , and Edward .
Elizabeth’s many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland , the first state visit of an Irish president to the United Kingdom , and reciprocal visits to and from the Pope. She has seen major constitutional changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom , Canadian patriation , and the decolonization of Africa . She has also reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms.
Times of personal significance have included the births and marriages of her children and grandchildren, the investiture of the Prince of Wales , and the celebration of milestones such as her Silver , Golden , and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, and 2012, respectively. Moments of sorrow for her include the death of her father, aged 56, the assassination of Prince Philip’s uncle, Lord Mountbatten , the breakdown of her children’s marriages in 1992 (a year deemed her annus horribilis ), the death in 1997 of her son’s former wife, Diana, Princess of Wales , and the deaths of her mother and sister in 2002. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and severe press criticism of the royal family , but support for the monarchy and her personal popularity remain high.
 South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded on the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; on the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and on the east and northeast by Mozambique and Swaziland; and surrounds the kingdom of Lesotho. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area, and with close to 56 million people, is the world’s 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, nine of which have official status. The remaining population consists of Africa’s largest communities of European (white), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (coloured) ancestry.
South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution’s recognition of 11 official languages, which is among the highest number of any country in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most white and coloured South Africans; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is commonly used in public and commercial life, though it is fourth-ranked as a spoken first language. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d’état, and regular elections have been held for almost a century. However, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a large role in the country’s recent history and politics. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, discriminatory laws began to be repealed or abolished from 1990 onwards.
Since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country’s democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the “Rainbow nation” to describe the country’s multicultural diversity, especially in the wake of apartheid. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an upper-middle-income economy, and a newly industrialised country. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed and living on less than US$1.25 a day. Nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence.
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