Fenntucky Mike

Agreed, but this is just another push towards going paperless. I don't expect that the U.S. will go 100% paperless in the next 50 years (maybe not ever 100%) but by then I would think the production of paper currency will be primarily driven by the collectibles market. In under developed areas/countries it will take longer or we may see a step backwards towards barter systems, pseudo currencies, or people are automatically issued a bank account, who knows what the future will bring but it is interesting to speculate. National Banks around the world are developing digital currencies in anticipation of the future and to retain their market share in the financial system vs cryptocurrency creation by private players. Ukraine has been developing a digital currency, the E-hryvnia, since 2016 and launched a pilot project for issuing E-hryvnia into circulation in 2018. Paperless will not be immediate but it is imminent for the majority. People being born now or who have already been born, may not ever use physical money in there life. My 14 year old nephew got into my 1996 Ford F250 and asked me how to roll down the window, I pointed to the window crank/handle and the look on his face was one of disbelief. As was the look on my face, when I realized he had never seen a manually operated window before. He had no idea what to do, as far as he was concerned that truck might as well have been equivalent to Fred Flintstones footmobile. Not that he would have understood that reference anyway.

I was reading through the National Bank of Ukraine's press releases and came across their response on "Preventing the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 during cash transactions" dated Mar, 18 2020, link here. https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/pro-profilaktiku-poshirennya-koronavirusnoyi-infektsiyi-covid-19-pid-chas-operatsiy-iz-gotivkoyu On a side note, the NBU actually has a decent website with English translations and good info on all banknotes and coins produced by the Banknote Printing and Minting Works in Kyiv, along with their monetary policies (they revamped the website early last year). Anyway, reading through the press release one finds the typical precautions as to be expected when in a biological crisis and in regards to physical money. Reduce contact, minimize receipt of funds, non-cash payments, etc.The NBU is also requesting that old notes be returned for disposal, all the while assuring the public that the cash reserves are sufficient to meet the countries needs. This release is probably to some extent standard "boilerplate" that is similar to releases and precautions being taken by banks around the world. This press release has me wondering how much the coronavirus did or will speed up the elimination of cash and coin, is this pandemic another log on the pyre of physical money? In Ukraine's case they just recently shuffled their coin and banknote denominations around. Starting on Oct, 1 2019 1, 2 and 5 kopeck coins, (the penny equivalent) were were withdrawn from circulation and are no longer accepted, (the 25 kopeck is also being eliminated, just not immediately) all transactions are now rounded to the amounts nearest multiple of 10. Next was eliminating the 5 and 10 hryvnia banknotes and replacing them with coins of the same denomination. The latest adjustment was the addition of a 1,000 UAH banknote, which is double the previous highest available denomination banknote. These moves along with additional adjustments decreased the available denominations in Ukraine from 17 to 12 (6 coins and 6 banknotes currently). All this was to lower the cost of manufacturing and streamline transactions, two more logs for the pyre. Lower denomination banknotes have already gone the way of the Dodo in Ukraine is the rest of the "dirty" money next? Ukraine's newest denomination, put into circulation on Oct, 25 2019.

I'm in complete agreement that gold will begin to fall fairly soon (I hope), I tend to think it will break 1800 before a gradual decline back down to 1500 or less. My guess would be that it will take at least a year probably more like two before gold drops back to 1500. Love the charts and the thought process on banknotes, it's nice to have that kind of data available and extrapolate, not sure if I could find the same info for lesser know world notes but I'll check it out. I do have a pretty good stack of small size NBN (exclusively Michigan) which I've collected over the years along with many notes from wildcat and state banks (all Michigan) and some odd and ends. Took a break from U.S. currency for a while but maybe now is the time to ease back in, maybe a nice easy FRN series. Asian notes are still going nuts, especially if you have the right S#. Was contemplating a S. Korean set, so many choices. You're right about that, his posts are the main reason I was sniffing around the Zimbabwe first series.

With gold continuing its ascent towards $1,800 I had pumped the breaks on any new gold purchases about six months ago, and came to a dead stop in late March. Having just sent in, what will likely be my last submission of gold coins for awhile I was thinking I should take this opportunity to focus more on my banknote collection/collecting goals. Now appears to be an opportune time for me, with an influx of modern Ukrainian banknotes (my current focus) hitting the market at relatively low prices, or at least at what I would consider a low cost for already graded notes ($30-$40). I'm also going to take this moment to go through my raw notes and purchase a few more, then put together my first submission to PMG, which I have been putting off due to my inexperience in judging the quality of a banknote. I think I've read, studied and observed enough graded notes to feel somewhat confident in my own grading skills. I should have a submission of around 12 notes ready to go by August, we'll see. Need to start working on some descriptions for the notes I already have, but that seams more like a winter endeavor. PMG World banknotes in high grades just seem to be plentiful right now and at reasonable prices, especially when compared to gold, or even a graded world silver bullion coin from one of the many popular series. As I approach the mid way point of my Ukrainian sets I start to wonder what's next? I have a couple of Zimbabwe notes and I'll probably stay current on the new series that is currently being released (I have the $2 & $5 notes) and I really like the first series of Zimbabwe notes, P1 -12. As another member has already written, the first series notes have recently been readily available and in high grades. I've been keeping my eye on the first series notes but just haven't been able to pull the trigger on them, mainly because Ukrainian notes have been popping up like deer in my garden. I'm really looking for a country, state, province, etc. whose complete set of notes comprises 50 Pick #'s or less. I was considering Transnistria after a short article I read in Coin World about their latest commemorative note and was also considering Moldova, both of which lie in the former eastern bloc and border Ukraine. I think I'll just pickpocket a Zimbabwe note here or there (the new $10 & $20) while I'm trying to make up my mind over the next few months. Suggestions welcome. Some of my latest acquisitions.

PMG should have given out a door prize for # 1,000 🥳 Welcome aboard # 1,000!

Interesting, I hadn't heard of this. Is the premium for the serial number combinations only tied to Chinese notes or do people in China pay a premium for notes with those numbers no matter the country?

Ouch! If that's the price difference from a 65 to 64 your friend may want to give it a third try. Those are the risks you take when playing the resubmission game, don't think I would have risked it at those odds. What would the note be worth if it graded 66 or what would the increase in value have been?

You can request a new set or slot on the PMG Chat Boards. Go to the PMG Registry forum and reply to PMG Registry - Request a new slot or set here!, or email them at registry@pmgnotes.com. They'll review your request and make a decision. I don't think I've seen a set that has separate slots for specimens. Be interesting to see if it happens. Agree, I'd be nice to have a set or sets for each country that have all notes and variants. But man, you'd be talking 100's if not 1000's of notes for some countries/sets. To use the Zimbabwe registry as an example, it is actually set up quite nicely with sub-sets, which would be nice goals to complete on the way to a full set. If all the sub-sets included varieties a complete set would be a little redundant, it would still be nice to have complete sets with all varieties no matter how the individual registries are structured.

Why isn't there a Zimbabwe Complete 1980 - Date set in the registry, or say a P1-12 including varieties? 110 is a lot but there are many other sets with higher counts, Zimbabwe certainly has enough PMG graded notes to support larger more comprehensive sets. Nice get, by the way.