Please read this blog entry.
Sorry to bring this news to you, but I heard that they’ve now officially abandoned the use of that currency althogether the other day…
Trillionaire for a day, anyway!
If I were central banker in Zim, I’d be printing “phantazillion”, “godzillion” and “infinillion” dollar bills, just to see how people would try to use them as if they were money.
I expected them to cut zeroes, but from an article published in the Washington Post apparently a new laptop was advertised for over a “quadrillion” dollars. I might have been a trillionaire, but apparently that’s not rich enough for the Zimbabwean nation!
They HAVE!
“the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe revalued their currency on August 1, 2006 at a rate of 1,000 old Zimbabwean dollars to 1 revalued Zimbabwean dollar.”
“On August 1, 2008, the Zimbabwe dollar was redenominated by removing 10 zeroes. ZWD 10 billion became 1 dollar after the redenomination.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation (In the text way down to Z in the list of many other hyperinflated currencies through out history, more than a dozen of which have occured since 1990)
and:
“2 February 2009: Zimbabwe is revaluing its dollar again, removing twelve zeros from the currency with immediate effect.”
Otherwise, the numbers on those bills would’ve been plain CRAZY! They’ve remomved 25 zeroes, but they really ever only needed to remove one zero, the one which is managing this fiat currency…
And now finally:
"12 April 2009: Zimbabwe’s national currency will remain suspended for at least a year following the legalisation of foreign currencies, officials say.
“There was nothing to support the value of the Zimbabwean dollar,” Economic Planning Minister Elton Mangoma said."
I think the highest denomination ever was a Hungarian note for some number of Octillions.
BTW, all the Reichmarks in existence in 1914 wouldn’t buy you newspaper in 1923. The Weimar Inflation, coming to a country near you.
The Rev
I know they cut zeroes; but I expected them to before they did.
My purchase of Zimbabwean bills (well, discontinued bills) and a project we did in a political science class of mine sparked an interest in Zimbabwean politics in me and so I wrote “Restoring Prosperity in Zimbabwe”.
Any commentary is welcomed.