Thursday 12 May 2011

If you want a hundred trillion dollars

this is what it could look like.

Unfortunately its a one hundred trillion dollar note from Zimbabwe and is worth around US$5

But that's what hyperinflation does for you.

The Wall Street Journal has a story on this note.
The notes are a hot commodity among currency collectors and novelty buyers, fetching 15 times what they were officially worth in circulation. In the past decade, President Robert Mugabe and his allies attempted to prop up the economy—and their government—by printing money. Instead, the country's central bankers sparked hyperinflation by issuing bills with more zeros.

The 100-trillion-dollar note, circulated for just a few months before the Zimbabwe dollar was officially abandoned as the country's legal currency in 2009, marked the daily limit people were allowed to withdraw from their bank accounts. Prices rose, wreaking havoc.

The runaway inflation forced Zimbabweans to wait in line to buy bread, toothpaste and other essentials. They often carried bigger bags for their money than the few items they could afford with a devalued currency.
These days all transactions in Zimbabwe are carried out in foreign currencies, mainly the U.S. dollar and the South African rand.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember reading a news story saying that inflation was so high and the money worth so little it was cheaper to use the notes as loo paper rather than buy loo paper.

Horace the Grump said...

I bought one for a friend's birthday from a stamp dealer in central Wellington last year... he thought it was a great joke..... cost $14....