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Abstract
The South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) celebrated its 90th anniversary on Jun 30, 2011, making it the oldest central bank in the southern hemisphere. This milestone in the history of the central bank was marked in several ways, including research on central banks with private shareholders, as the South African Reserve Bank is one of a small group of such institutions. The primary aim of this note is, therefore, to raise public awareness of this unique group of institutions and to encourage research interest into this area of central banking that has been overlooked for many years. The dynamics of the relationships between central banks and their shareholders are beyond the scope of this article, but warrant further research. Historically the vast majority of central banks, or banks of (banknote) issue as they were also referred to at the time, were institutions with private shareholders.