GRC – Gold Reef City Mint

GRC = Gold Reef City Mint is one of the founding members of the South African Association of Numismatic Dealers. The Gold Reef City Mint is licensed by Rand Refinery and is one of the largest wholesale and retail suppliers of Krugerrands in the country. The GRC Mint was one of two private mints in South Africa that minted legal tender under the license of the South African Mint.

Foundation and origin

Founded in 1976 as “Post Office Coins and Stamps”, the company changed to “Gold Reef City Coins and Stamps” in 1986, and two years later acquired “Gold Reef City Mint” from its parent company, It was originally a pure coin retailer, and expanded into the manufacture of coins and related items. The name is derived from the Gold Reef City gold mine, which is now a theme park in Johannesburg.

Originally a branch of the South African Mint Company, the Gold Reef City Mint then operates today as an independent private company, but still enjoys the support and cooperation of the national mint. The company eventually moved to the Rand Refinery Complex in Germiston in 2009.

GRC and the coins

The company produces a variety of coins, medals, promotional gifts, key chains, medallions and trophies. Emphasis and specialty are currently gold, silver and platinum.

GRC is one of the best known Krugerrand traders in South Africa.

Krugerrand coins have several advantages:

• The first gold bullion coin in the world
• The most traded gold bullion coin in the world
• Easy to buy and sell worldwide, and
• The world’s most famous brand of investment gold coins and special editions

Imprinting of the GRC

The first mintage of the limited coins with the mint mark GRC took place on January 30, 1987. The coins were minted for the Barnib Group, which is now part of First National Bank. After that, entrepreneurial groups and private individuals organized private minting of coins.

In 1988, the Mint invited coin subscribers to apply for minting coins. The response was overwhelming and led to this procedure being officially introduced from 1989. Each individual mintage has a numbered Gold Reef City Mint certificate with the recipient’s name and date of mintage recorded on the certificate. The certificate is signed by the Director of the SA Mint as well as the Deputy Master Gold Reef City Mint. When “minting” the coin, a photo of the person is taken and later given to the “maker” of the coin.

Embossing variants

During 1988, the Gold Reef City Mint changed the minting process, resulting in four mintage varieties. Here, the obverse of the gold coins was already made in the Pretoria Mint and only the reverse could be minted in Johannesburg. As a variant of the ounce apply the “Ghost Image” by Paul Kruger, where the motif is slightly twisted to see again. In addition, proof coins exist with unstruck center pieces of the year (88). The half ounce also features a “Ghost Image”, as well as Krugerrand with a small underline below the “Fyngoud” lettering. The circulation of the two mintages is extremely small.

However, the Gold Reef City Mint discontinued this service again.

In 2007, a 1kg Krugerrand with a fineness of 99.99% and an edition of only 40 copies was issued. The gold special edition was released to commemorate 40 years of mintage and bears a GRC mintmark.

We regularly offer coins with the GRC Mintmark in our store. Just take a look at our store. If you have any questions about GRC coins, please feel free to write to us using our contact form.