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About this journal

A journal mostly about my collection of Zimbabwe banknotes - the only banknotes I collect for the time being that are interesting enough for me to think people might want to read about it. But there will be periodic discussions of US Small Size Federal Reserve Notes and Silver Certificates and you may start seeing more about Venezuelan Bolivares.

I have a very strong interest in Hyperinflation notes so I'll probably continue to expand into new series of Hyperinflation notes now that my Zimbabwe collection is going to increasingly be at a more mature and static state going forward.

Entries in this journal

Zimbabwe Notes

I can put a fork in this again... (for now?)

After my wife bought all three of the Rhodesian pennies I was looking to maybe get with my collecting money for my birthday () I had some cash available to me, and then I saw a 68EPQ P106 note for Zimbabwe pop up from one of my favorite dealers that I've gotten most of the new notes from this series from. They were listing it for $35+$5 shipping so I decided to try for it. No one else bid and I took it. Unfortunately I can't add it to my signature set right now because it a
Revenant

Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

12
Zimbabwe Notes

Shaking my head... $100 bills, gold coins, and the refusal to admit that it's over.

I'm putting this up as what I'm calling my 2022 update to the Zimbabwe set. When I got into this in 2015 I thought it would be done and that I would just get to build the sets and the descriptions and be done. It has been very interesting and an unexpected journey to have this new series that started in 2019 (2016 if you count the bond notes) and having to update and revise to reflect the timeline moving forward, but it's something I've enjoyed following immensely, carrying the set forward.
Revenant

Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

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Zimbabwe Notes

First Note purchase in a while was an impulse upgrade...

So, I saw this thing come up and knew it was higher grade than what I had. I added it to my watch list and then never followed up or look at it. I got a notification last night from eBay that it was ending. It had no bids and a price of $27. The seller - who I buy from often - had a BIN option on it in another listing for $35. Just for fun I put in a $27 bid as the minutes were ticking down. I thought mine was a 66 EPQ but I didn't feel like I had time to check. I won it though! I
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Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

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Zimbabwe Notes

So, where does "Harare" come from?

So, where does "Harare" come from? My wife got me back on this question recently. I'd been looking for it a little before but could never find it. Looking for this led me to other answers too, as I said in my last post, but I've finally found AN answer. Maybe it's THE answer, or part of it. From what little I've been able to find in things like the Encyclopedia Britannica, there was a Shona chieftain in the late 19th Century called Neharawa. An area was named "Harawa" after him and the
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Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

4
Zimbabwe Notes

"Clearance Sale." Ha! Clearance yourself!

I think it was about a year or so ago that Banknote World announced they were going to start releasing Banknotes with their TAP (Total Authentication Promise or something like that) notes with these blue labels. Up to that point Banknote World had been a very good source for me on PMG-graded notes. But then they had these things and a lot of their marketing started focusing on these and less on PMG and they never got any newer releases in stock as PMG graded notes – they’d stopped sending t
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Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

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Zimbabwe Notes

I think the upgrades will happen over the objections of my practical side

I keep finding myself eye-balling 68EPQ examples of the P-1b, the P-11b and things like that in the sub-$40 range and I think I'm not going to be able to fully talk myself down from upgrading over time even though the practical side of me says I shouldn't. Collecting, ultimately, is not practical. Lol I keep trying to tell myself that 66EPQ notes are perfectly good, gem uncirc examples and rationalizing that the difference between a 68 and a 66 is subtle at best - especially in the hol
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Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

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Zimbabwe Notes

The person on this note...

I finally found a reference that names who the person on the back of the new $50 note is supposed to be... Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, aka Mbuya Nehandra A female hero of the “Chimurenga,” or what is now called the “First Chimurenga,” which was the war of the native Africans to fight the British South Africa Company in an attempt to stop the colonialization of Rhodesia / Zimbabwe. She was a spirit medium and spirit leader of the Shona. She was captured and executed in 1898. It is beli
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Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

3
Zimbabwe Notes

Grades back on the P-3s... Already! WOW! ... and other stuff, I guess.

PMG posted my P-3 submission as "shipped" and posted grade results today. Received on 8/3/21 and Shipped on 8/12/21. 9 calendar days, folks. That is a turnaround. A 65 and a 66 are solid, especially for 1st dollar notes and very consistent with my set overall. A 67 or 68 would have been GREAT. A 63 or 64 would have disappointed me. This is kind of a literal shrug.  I looked at it and just nodded a little and was like, "Not bad." The seller I bought them from advertised them a
Revenant

Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

13
Zimbabwe Notes

Further evidence of the downside risk in collecting condition rarities

Mike and I have made quite a joke in the past of the people buying 70 EPQ Zimbabwe notes on eBay for hundreds of dollars but I got another example recently. Last year my wife gifted me a 68 EPQ 20 Trillion note that was a great step up from the 65 EPQ I'd had before. I think she paid about $110 for it after shipping and taxes. I was looking on eBay recently and the same note in the same grade is now available for about $50-55, in part because the same seller got more of them in that grade.
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Revenant in Zimbabwe Notes

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