RANDS FOR RACISM: The Marketing of South African Krugerrands

Contents: The International Marketing of the Krugerrand • Bank Involvement in International Krugerrand Sales • Canada • Switzerland • United Kingdom • United States • West Germany • Opposition to Krugerrand Sales • Suggestions for Action • Footnotes • The pamphlet reports on international sales of Krugerrands, gold bullion coins minted in South Africa, and organizing against their sales. A list of banks involved in Krugerrand sales includes Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays Bank, Nedbank, Standard Chartered Bank, Banco de Urquijo, Swiss Credit Corporation, Union Bank of Switzerland, Johnson Matthey, N. M. Rothschild and Sons, Samuel Montague and Co., Sharps Pixley, First National Bank of Birmingham, First National Bank of North East, First National Bank of North Kansas City, Home State National Bank, Pittsburgh National Bank, Republic National Bank, State Street National Bank of Boston, Bank fur Gemeinwirtschaft, Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale, and Westdeutsche Landesbank. The United States is the largest market for Krugerrands, where Mocatta Metals Corporation, J. Aron and Co. Inc., and Republic National Bank of New York are the main marketing agents. In response to anti-apartheid organizing, some television stations stopped running Krugerrand ads (WNBC, WCBS, WABC, WNAC, WBZ, WCVB, WBBM, WMAW, WLS, WGN, WKGW) and some banks stopped selling the coins (Seaway National Bank, New Jersey National Bank, Northwestern National Bank, Commerce Bank and Trust Company, Hospital Trust National Bank, and Marshall and Illsley, as well as Merrill Lynch), as have several department stores (Abraham and Straus (A&S) in New York, May Company in Cleveland, and Carson, Pirie, Scott in Chicago). Some institutions stopped over-the-counter sales but continued other types of sales (Princeton Bank and Trust, Continental Bank of Chicago, Pittsburgh National Bank, and Boatmen's Bancshares of St. Louis). Several shareholder resolutions have called for ending sales of the coin, including those filed by the Dominicans (Province of St. Albert the Great) with First Chicago Corporation, by the Sisters of Loretto with First Union Bancorporation, and the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers with Boatmaen's. The pamphlet also mentions Rev. Jesse Jackson, Paul Kruger, the State University or New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, the gold mining industry, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Chamber of Mines, the London and Zurich gold markets, the International Gold Corporation, Ltd. (Intergold), the Rand Daily Mail, a massive advertising effort, the International Gold Coin Exchange, the Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa (TCLSAC), Hong Kong, SAFTO Exporter, the Swiss Banking Corporation, Nicholas Deak, the Deak-Perera Group, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Mail, Don Mackay-Coghill, Doyle Dane Bernbach International Inc., companies that have minted Krugerrand replicas (International Monetary Mint of Huntington Valley, MM Manufacturing, Columbia Mint, and Merritt Mint), Deutsche Bank, the Boston Globe, the Bergen Record, Malcolm Borg, Methodist church groups in Michigan, the Detroit Free Press, Marmaduke Jacobs, Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC), the Chicago Coalition on Southern Africa, and magazines and radio stations carrying advertisements of smaller Kruerrand coins (Business Week, Forbes, Money, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report, and WPAT-FM radio).