The Lesotho loti
Currency · LSL · 1 country
The Central Bank of Lesotho issues the loti and holds it one to one with the South African rand, which stays legal tender in Lesotho under the Common Monetary Area. The loti was first issued in 1966 as a currency that did not circulate. Coins and notes meant to replace the rand followed in 1980, although the rand never lost its standing. Its name is the Sesotho word for mountain.
No sign of its own
The loti has no sign of its own in the Unicode data behind this page, so the code LSL stands in. In Lesotho amounts are written with the initial of the currency's name, which changes with the plural: L for a single loti, M for maloti, as in M200.
- ISO code
- LSL
- ISO number
- 426
- Subunit
- sente, 1/100
An amount, written out
LSL 1,234.50
- LSL 1,234.50EnglishLesotho
Where the Lesotho loti is the official currency
Lesotho issues the loti and spends it at home, where the South African rand also circulates at par under the Common Monetary Area. The loti is legal tender only in Lesotho.
Legal tender alongside it
About the Lesotho loti
Why the rand circulates beside the loti
The rand is legal tender across the whole of the Common Monetary Area, which links South Africa with Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini. The smaller members issue currencies of their own at par with it, and each of those is legal tender only at home. Exchange controls and monetary policy throughout the area still reflect the South African Reserve Bank.
The arrangement predates the loti by decades. From 1921 the South African pound was the only legal tender in the territories that now form the area, and the rand took its place in 1961. The Rand Monetary Area, formalised in December 1974 and signed by South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, became the Common Monetary Area in July 1986. Namibia's formal entry in February 1992 turned it into the Multilateral Monetary Area of today.
Because rand circulate inside Lesotho, South Africa pays compensation for the seigniorage Lesotho gives up. The formula takes the volume of rand estimated to circulate there and applies two thirds of the annual yield on the most recent South African government stock.
Who issues the maloti and why the peg holds
The bank began as the Lesotho Monetary Authority in 1978 and grew into the Central Bank of Lesotho. It handles both currencies. It supplies maloti and rand to commercial banks, redeems damaged and withdrawn money, sends surplus rand back to South Africa and collects maloti that have crossed the border.
The bank has no inflation target. It runs a fixed exchange rate, loti for rand, and describes the peg as an intermediate goal: tying to a less volatile currency lets Lesotho import low and stable inflation.
What the coins and notes have shown
The first coins bore the date 1979. They went into circulation in 1980 at 1 sente, 2 to 50 lisente and 1 loti, and the set later grew with coins of 2 and 5 maloti in 1996 and a 20 lisente in 1998. Notes started in January 1980 at 2, 5 and 10 maloti. The 20 and 50 followed in 1981. Then came the 100 and 200, in 1994.
On 1 March 2011, at a celebration of its thirtieth year, the central bank launched a series dated 2010 to fight counterfeiting. Each note carries three kings of the royal line side by side, and the backs show cosmos flowers, Basotho huts, men on horseback, a shepherd with his flock. The registration device is a mokorotlo, the Basotho hat. The 2021 series kept the look but shrank the notes, added tactile marks for readers with poor sight and coated them in an anti-bacterial, anti-viral varnish.
How the names change in the plural
One loti becomes two maloti. The sente, named from the English cent, becomes two lisente in the plural. ISO changed the currency's code from LSM to LSL in 1985.
Common questions
Questions about the Lesotho loti
Can South African rand be used in Lesotho?
Yes. The rand is legal tender throughout the Common Monetary Area, Lesotho included, and circulates there beside the loti at one to one. The Central Bank of Lesotho itself supplies rand as well as maloti to the commercial banks, and ships surplus rand back to South Africa. In return for the rand circulating on its soil, Lesotho receives compensation payments from South Africa under a formula set in the monetary agreement.
What is the plural of loti?
Maloti. The subunit works the same way: one sente, several lisente, a word taken from the English cent. Amounts follow the plural too, so a single unit is written with L and anything more with M, as on the M200 note.
Do shops in South Africa accept maloti?
The Common Monetary Area agreement makes each member's own currency legal tender only in that country, so the loti has no legal standing in South Africa, while the rand is legal tender everywhere in the area. Maloti do still cross the border: the Central Bank of Lesotho lists collecting them from South Africa among its currency tasks.
What happens to a torn or stained loti note?
The Central Bank of Lesotho and the commercial banks exchange damaged notes. A note with two thirds or more of it remaining may be paid at full value, one with at least half but less than two thirds at half value, and anything smaller has no value. Notes stained by the dye that cash machines and cash-in-transit vans spray when attacked are treated differently: the dye damages the security features, the bank classes them as counterfeit and redeems nothing, and it asks anyone holding one to hand it to the police or the central bank. Old coins and notes are changed at face value.