10 Thebe

Botswana's thebe coinage was introduced in 1976 when the country replaced the South African rand with its own currency — a politically significant move for a nation that had only gained independence a decade earlier in 1966. The Bank of Botswana managed the transition carefully, pegging the new pula to a basket of currencies rather than to the rand alone, which insulated the economy from South Africa's periodic monetary instability during the apartheid years.