JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - The South African Gold Coin Exchange (SAGCE) said on Friday that Nelson Mandela's upcoming birthday, bolstered by the FIFA World Cup aftermath euphoria, had prompted unprecedented nationwide demand for Mandela coins and medallions.

Year-on-year, demand for the coins had increased by around 50%, SAGCE chairperson Alan Demby told Mining Weekly Online.

"Demand has exceeded last year's enthusiasm by a considerable margin, a phenomenon that could be ascribes to the proximity of Madiba's birthday to the World Cup."

The former South African President is turning 92 on July 18.

Further, Demby envisaged that demand for the coins could increase by an additional 50% for the remainder of the year, if gold remained at its current trend.

"SAGCE's range of Mandela-related coins and medallions have the additional appeal of being affordable to all income groups and sales have been buoyant at all 18 Scoin retail outlets throughout South Africa and Britain," said Demby.

SAGCE would be contributing to the Mandela Day 67 minutes appeal by donating a gold coin to the CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation for it to be auctioned at one of the foundation's upcoming fund-raising events.

Funds raised are applied to directly benefit of the children living with the illness and their families.

CHOC, which is not government funded, provides sanctuary to children living with cancer in a ‘home-from-home' establishment. CHOC has eight such houses across the country where families, especially those living in rural communities, can stay while the child obtains the necessary hospital treatment.

Demby said that SAGCE had been a regular CHOC donor over the past couple of years, not only through donations of gold coins for auction but by donating a percentage of its sales of gold Scoin coins.