1/2 Cent Balthazar J. Vorster

The half cent was discontinued after 1983, making the final years of this denomination something of a quiet death — inflation had rendered it functionally worthless long before the mint stopped striking it. Vorster himself had resigned the presidency in 1978 following the Information Scandal, in which secret government funds were misappropriated to run pro-apartheid propaganda operations abroad, including an attempt to purchase American newspapers.

His appearance on coinage into the early 1980s reflects the lag between political disgrace and institutional inertia.