Heads and tails on South African coins?

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CapeTalk’s Lester Kiewit asked Landon Coleske, senior numismatist at Bassani Auction House to explain after the outcome of a coin toss to determine who would win a tied ward in the recent local government elections – was disputed by some onlookers.

Coleske said whoever the issuing authority of a coin is, that’s the head.

“So, if you look at South African coins, the head of the coin is actually the coat of arms. So, on the 10, 20, 50 cent, two rand and the five rand.”

Coleske said the one rand is different because it doesn’t have a coat of arms. “It has the protea on one side and the South African flag on the other side. So, on that coin the heads is the South African flag side.”

He added that it is critical for people to agree before the toss what is heads and what is tails.

Going into some history, he said over 2,000 years ago in the ancient Roman period, it was actually called Heads and Ships.

“They used to have a head on the coin and a ship on the other side for a lot of the ancient Roman coins. So, it’s quite a common thing that people have done to decide things over many years.

“And quite interesting also, if you look at the statistics, if you do a coin toss, the odds are actually not 50/50. So it’s 51% for the side that is on top.”

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