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Edited to add: After boxing them up the other day, the 15 bearer and traveller's checks were picked up today and are now officially on their way! So... I guess I'll know how they did in like late June or July. 

Turnaround times are better at PMG than NGC so...... mid July probably. 

FYI, no skunks yet but I haven't given up.

1 hour ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Turnaround times are better at PMG than NGC so...... mid July probably. 

FYI, no skunks yet but I haven't given up.

Well, all the NGC stuff mailed 1.5 months ago hit quality control a week ago or more. I think those would all be coming home if I hadn't said 2 weeks ago that they could try to remove the residue they see on that gold tobacco dove. So maybe early July? 

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Turnaround times are better at PMG than NGC so...... mid July probably. 

FYI, no skunks yet but I haven't given up.

I'll give you the update first when I know! Just for fun, where you thought one of the checks would grade higher, I submitted those to one invoice and submitted the others to another. We'll see if all the higher grades come back on the one invoice. Either way I'll have two groups of -001 to -006 and I'll make one competitive set with the higher grades and a set with the lower grades (even if they don't all have the same invoice #) and I'll have a signature set of all of them + the P-15 I already have.

I'm excited though! Those 3 2nd dollar notes will make my 2nd dollar set 100% complete! I'll only have 1 hole (P-72) from P-32 to P-104! OMG! That's going to be INSANE! I never would have imagined!  

10 hours ago, Revenant said:

Well, all the NGC stuff mailed 1.5 months ago hit quality control a week ago or more. I think those would all be coming home if I hadn't said 2 weeks ago that they could try to remove the residue they see on that gold tobacco dove. So maybe early July? 

I have never regretted having NCS conserve my coins when recommended. Since most of my stuff is low dollar I don't think it's ever cost more than $11ish and as an added bonus, after conservation, the coins have always come back at a higher grade. Maybe that's NGC's incentive plan. jk 

9 hours ago, Revenant said:

I'll give you the update first when I know! Just for fun, where you thought one of the checks would grade higher, I submitted those to one invoice and submitted the others to another. We'll see if all the higher grades come back on the one invoice.

Uh oh, now I have a stake in the game. Nothing like a little pressure to test your skills.  

9 hours ago, Revenant said:

I'm excited though! Those 3 2nd dollar notes will make my 2nd dollar set 100% complete! I'll only have 1 hole (P-72) from P-32 to P-104! OMG! That's going to be INSANE! I never would have imagined!

That's awesome my friend! Now to work on those fuel coupons. 

Isn't the RBZ due to release a $50 note soon?

16 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

That's awesome my friend! Now to work on those fuel coupons. 

Isn't the RBZ due to release a $50 note soon?

So... I think I have enough credit left to send in 7 more modern issues for grading after this under the credit. 🤔 I so I think I need to try to get some of those soon just for fun, and maybe a P-3 note or two to be a cheap gap filler even if it doesn't come back super high grade. 

I mean, I know you are joking but they are kinda due. We got 2 in 2019 and 2 in 2020. So they are due to issue new collectables. But I have not heard anything official saying they're wasting more paper to print $50 and $100 notes.  I honestly wouldn't mind. 2 notes a year is manageable. 30 in 2 years hurts.

30 minutes ago, Revenant said:

I mean, I know you are joking but they are kinda due. We got 2 in 2019 and 2 in 2020. So they are due to issue new collectables. But I have not heard anything official saying they're wasting more paper to print $50 and $100 notes.  I honestly wouldn't mind. 2 notes a year is manageable. 30 in 2 years hurts.

It's been a few months now but the RBZ did issue a press release in mid January declaring their intent to release a $50 note and denying plans to print $100 & $200 banknotes. Who knows, all that may have changed ten times since then. I did read inflation was down to 194% in April, it seems that they are being a little more systematic this time around. 

Press Release (rbz.co.zw)

13 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

It's been a few months now but the RBZ did issue a press release in mid January declaring their intent to release a $50 note and denying plans to print $100 & $200 banknotes. Who knows, all that may have changed ten times since then. I did read inflation was down to 194% in April, it seems that they are being a little more systematic this time around. 

Press Release (rbz.co.zw)

Huh. I missed that one. Mkay. So they're taking the Venezuelan P-100 approach- releasing 1 last 1-off before giving up (If they're smart or wising up).

From everything I've seen there's little point in a Z$50. They need to skip a bit like they did back in the day and hit a $500, $1000, $2000.

A $1000 note would at least maybe get you a loaf of bread. That new $50 note would only be worth about a dime. 

I have to imagine that the country is running on USDs right now anyway.

Hmm, I did a little more reading and it seems the RBZ is running a bureaux de change scheme? If I understand this correctly the RBZ has been holding auctions in which they are selling foreign currency to private businesses and individuals. So they flushed their monetary system down the toilet, again, and are selling foreign currencies ($80 million USD worth) to the highest bidder above spot? I might be interpreting this wrong but that's what it seems to be.

Yeah, they aren't issuing another bill. 

1 hour ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

I have to imagine that the country is running on USDs right now anyway.

Hmm, I did a little more reading and it seems the RBZ is running a bureaux de change scheme? If I understand this correctly the RBZ has been holding auctions in which they are selling foreign currency to private businesses and individuals. So they flushed their monetary system down the toilet, again, and are selling foreign currencies ($80 million USD worth) to the highest bidder above spot? I might be interpreting this wrong but that's what it seems to be.

Yeah, they aren't issuing another bill. 

The whole thing is such a mess. That announcement is really odd in that the usually didn't do that. They don't announce "intent" to release a note. They release a new note. That announcement, when you read between the lines, was more about denying the $100 & $200 notes, which people were already speculating about, and it came right after a guy on the MPC, Eddie Cross, said the release of a new $50 was imminent and that "higher denominations" where in the works. I think that was a denial of the higher denominations to try desperately to put a lid on inflation expectations.

https://www.techzim.co.zw/2021/01/rbz-confirms-introduction-of-50-banknote-but-denies-100-200/amp/?fbclid=IwAR3-JV-inzlMQVfTIDth-6SI2H4B2Fm2S3HQ-PzxO858_a6_y_NHRJX9Nx4#aoh=16210904523700&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From %1%24s

I think, however, that if that $50 was coming it would be formally announced by now, and the last thing I can find on it is a Feb 2 article talking about how black marketeers where doing the over/under on the announcement. They've surprised me before - I never thought we'd actually get the $10 and the $20 and then they released them, but I really think that only happened because they already had the designs prepared from the failed Bond Note run and they just had to remove "bond note" and hit "print." I don't think a $50 design was part of the original Bond Note plan, so I think they'd be making that from scratch, and I just don't see them doing that for a Z$50 note at this point.

Also: There was an article i saw from Nov 2020 saying that people were back to using USD for basically everything and back to literally washing and repairing old, nasty dollar bills and continuing to use old US dollars - no matter how terrible the condition - just because that was the only thing people wanted, not the new Z dollars.

https://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/zimbabwe-brings-different-meaning-to-money-laundering

https://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/zimbabwe-embraces-u-s-dollar-as-currency-shortage-continues

If governments are good at anything though, it's denying reality:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-30/zimbabwe-rules-out-return-to-u-s-dollar-backs-local-currency

At this point, I'm guessing we'll see a new redenomination, a new currency / currency system, and maybe a brand new series around late 2021 or 2022.

Okay, because they made me do it, my Mid-2021 update to my $20 note (P-104)

https://notes.www.collectors-society.com/registry/notes/NoteDetail.aspx?PeopleNoteID=90997&PeopleSetID=26566

What a mess. What a disgrace, and what a crying shame.

Good stuff, I think you're spot on with all of this. 

I like the description of the Z$20, and it has me thinking of what I want my descriptions to be.

Is there a place to see old Bloomberg articles for free? I almost got a subscription the other day and now the Zimbabwe article.  Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet. 

8 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Good stuff, I think you're spot on with all of this. 

I like the description of the Z$20, and it has me thinking of what I want my descriptions to be.

Is there a place to see old Bloomberg articles for free? I almost got a subscription the other day and now the Zimbabwe article.  Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet. 

I think they give you a few for free every month and I make do. I just found that by googling.

Just now, Revenant said:

I think they give you a few for free every month and I make do. I just found that by googling.

Probably, I'm sure I'm over the limit of free articles for the month at any rate.  They have a lot of good articles on world finances and shenanigans, every time I search something in those categories for banknote research at least one article from them pops up. Sigh, well the month is half over, I guess I can wait but they do have a three month special that is calling to me. I used to juggle the free 30 day trials from Amazon, sign up, cancel, sign up, cancel....... but they wore me down in the end. I may just go back to that and give Bloomberg and UNIAN (Ukrainian Independent Information News Agency) my $13 a month.

I really despise having so many different accounts and passwords but I guess it's all a means to an end. At least 75% of my accounts were started because of coins and/or banknotes. 

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

... and it has me thinking of what I want my descriptions to be.

For your Zimbabwe set or your Ukrainian set?

1 hour ago, Revenant said:

For your Zimbabwe set or your Ukrainian set?

Mainly my Ukrainian sets, I'm wondering how much of the human aspect I want to put in the descriptions. The balance of factoids about the note and how/why it came into existence and why it stopped circulating, I find it really tough to do both and not end up writing a book about it. Probably one of the reasons I'm dragging my feet on these. I think I need a word limit/goal.

22 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Mainly my Ukrainian sets, I'm wondering how much of the human aspect I want to put in the descriptions. The balance of factoids about the note and how/why it came into existence and why it stopped circulating, I find it really tough to do both and not end up writing a book about it. Probably one of the reasons I'm dragging my feet on these. I think I need a word limit/goal.

That has been my biggest challenge on the Venezuelan set. I didn't really have this problem on the Zimbabwean notes because the designs are frankly kinda repetitive and boring 😅 so I focused on the history. But I'm actively working on a revamp of the Venezuelan set that will make me (finally) happy and I think it'll be a winner - just maybe not literally winning anything."

23 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

 I find it really tough to do both and not end up writing a book about it. Probably one of the reasons I'm dragging my feet on these. I think I need a word limit/goal.

A comment I've made to myself that I'll repeat: "Sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good."

I went through a while where I couldn't make myself happy with my Venezuela set and I had nothing up and eventually I just posted what I had while I gave myself time to think - and PMG gave me a feature.

Sometimes you just have to work on it until you figure it out. I'm finally closing in on an overall plan and presentation for the Venezuelan signature set. But I'm only getting there because I've kept playing and tweaking.

My 4th dollar and New dollar descriptions went through MANY adjustments as the timeline advanced. 

13 hours ago, Revenant said:

A comment I've made to myself that I'll repeat: "Sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good."

I went through a while where I couldn't make myself happy with my Venezuela set and I had nothing up and eventually I just posted what I had while I gave myself time to think - and PMG gave me a feature.

Sometimes you just have to work on it until you figure it out. I'm finally closing in on an overall plan and presentation for the Venezuelan signature set. But I'm only getting there because I've kept playing and tweaking.

My 4th dollar and New dollar descriptions went through MANY adjustments as the timeline advanced. 

That's what I'll end up doing, just post what I have, I tend to treat my descriptions like a living document anyway "constantly tweaking".

I've been picking up a few notes here and there, notes I find attractive, and I have chosen a theme for a new signature set. I think the themed set will provide a nice distraction from my Ukrainian sets and in the end get the juices flowing for the descriptions.