Bill Urges Minting of Gold Coin to Vie With Krugerrand

Legislation to permit the minting of a legal-tender U.S. gold coin to compete in world markets with the South African Krugerrand was introduced in the Senate Thursday by a bipartisan group headed by Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) and assistant Minority Leader Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).

Cranston said the new legal-tender U.S. coin is needed because “the Krugerrand has become a symbol of the abomination called apartheid and the abominable South African government that practices it.”

A U.S. gold coin, he said, would give investors and collectors “a free choice between a symbol of Liberty and a symbol of race hatred. I have no doubt which they will choose.”