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Revenant

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Journal Entries posted by Revenant

  1. Revenant

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

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Notes
    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 appears the PMG servers in Florida that the site needs to confirm the cert# are down.
    I'm hoping everyone out there with PMG and NGC are doing okay. My wife works remotely with a Florida-based company that's in Gainesville. From what she tells me they have all made it through okay but some are also without power.
    I already have a description / commentary written up for it to go into my signature set with it once the servers are back up and I get another chance to add it.
    This note makes me caught up with this series for probably the first time in a year or more. I didn't get the $50 until this one was coming out and I've just been constantly behind on this while I focused on Venezuelan, Zimbabwean and Italian coins. So it feels good to finally get caught up again.

    Mike may note that the grade is a 68. Now that I'm reaching pretty happy, stable points with some of the coin sets, I'm likely to take a break from some of those for a while, until next year when I start to prepare another submission.
    I'm starting to feel the temptation and maybe have the budget to put towards upgrading some of those 67s and 66s in this set to 68s as notes become available at prices I'm okay with.
  2. Revenant
    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.
    The timing of this update is spurred partially by my wife buying me a graded example of the $50 (P-105) note for the series as part of my father's day present and also the announcement the RBZ made last week. My last major update to this set was in May 2021, a couple of months before the $50 note was released, so my $20 note description still said I thought the $20 note would be the last of the series. So an update was needed.
    The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced in early April 2022 that they would be releasing a new $100 bill. At the time, inflation was running about 6-7% a month and about 66-72% a year. The RBZ committee at the time talked about how it needed to “remain focused on inflation reduction” while also pointing to rising global inflation and the Russia-Ukraine conflict – which had started only about 1.5 months prior at the time.  


    The design of this note will look familiar to those familiar with Zimbabwean money. The front of the note is more or less identical to the other notes in the series with the exception of the color and the denomination and even the color seems very similar to the $50 note that immediately precedes it in the series. The reverse of the note features the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, which have not been featured previously in this series but they have been featured on the national coins and currency over and over again dating back to 1980 with the $1 coin. I think the first appearance of the ruins on a note was on the $50 bill of the 2nd series of the 1st dollar (P-8), which was released in 1994. 
    Every time the ruins are introduced or featured in a new series of notes it is done with new artwork but the artwork always seems to focus on this one structure or feature of the ruins. I think this new design is notable also for the prominent placement of the milkwood tree. I bring up the old $1 coin from 1980 in part because, of all the prior artwork, this new note most reminds me of that old $1 coin. 
    By Jun 2022, just two months after this note was released, annual inflation had spiked from 72% to 192%. 
    Forever behind the curve with this series, the RBZ once again released a new note that could not even buy a loaf of bread when it was released. For all the jokes that got made about the $100 Trillion dollar note (P-91) at the time of its release, that bill was worth about $2 officially at release and could buy bread – and if you sold it to tourists at the airport for more than it was actually worth you could get a loaf of bread or maybe two. But these notes, at release, didn’t even buy you bread. 
    Just two to three months after this note was released, in June and July 2022, you have some developments that are perhaps the most damning inditements of this new currency, the surest signs that this experiment in restarting a national currency has failed, and that this series may actually, finally, be close to an end. 
    In June 2022, the country announced that the US Dollar and other foreign currencies would once again be legal tender in the country and would remain so for at least the next 5 years. This is an official return to the multi-currency system that reigned from 2009-2019 and which was brought to an end by the government outlawing domestic use of foreign currencies and the forced conversion of bank balances to the new dollar in 2019. This comes less than three years after the RBZ stated repeatedly in October 2019 that there was absolutely zero chance that they would return to the multi-currency system. 
    One month after that, in July 2022 - last week -the country announced that they would start issuing gold coins later that month that could be purchased for the value of the coins + production cost and used in domestic transactions or kept as an inflation hedge.  
    Actual gold coins, struck possibly even for circulation. Can you even believe it? If it happens I think that might be one of if not the first time that gold coins have circulated in nearly 100 years.
    I'm looking for pictures.... I wonder what they'll look like.... I need one of these things. Like Seriously. I'm going to have to get one.
    But... they're still supporting this zombie currency. It's dead. The people have rejected it. They've brought the multi-currency system back and they think they'll get to just take it away again in 5 years?
     
    Edited to add:
    My wife's father's day present to me also included 2 other notes.
    One is a 65 EPQ graded P-18 that Noteshobby had listed recently. I showed her the check / linked her to it (and the P-105, and the Congo note) recently when she was looking for ideas for a present for me because she considers me hard to shop for. This 65 EPQ example is better than the 63EPQ and 64EPQ I'd gotten graded last year. So it upgrades my "best possible set" of these checks but I'm not actually putting it in a competitive set with my other "best" checks. I'm putting it in my incomplete set that contains the now 3 of these things that I've bought from elsewhere. I just like the idea of those other two sets being entirely self-graded too much to introduce a pre-graded, bought note into them and ruining those -001 to -006 runs I worked so hard to make. I don't need to fight currently to have the highest ranked set of these so I like the style of keeping those other two sets "pure." But this note is now with all the others in the signature set I made to highlight these specifically. 


    The Congo note goes towards my elephant note set - which I may get more seriously off the ground one day. I'll have to do some research for this one ... one day... as I have time.


  3. Revenant
    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!
    It turns out the one I had in my set was a 67 EPQ. So this was only a 1 point, minor, upgrade... but it's an upgrade. The set gets slightly better, slightly stronger... slightly closer to being acceptable to Mike's lofty standards.
    The seller's image is of an AB. I wouldn't mind if this turned into another case where what they actually send me is an AA, because what I have in my set already (the 67 EPQ) is also an AB. So that could be nice. I guess we'll see.
    The serial number on the note they image is interesting - Not fancy, but interesting. Somehow I doubt this is the one I'll get but... interesting to look at nonetheless.
     
    Edited to add:
    A few months ago I finally bit the bullet and bought a 66 EPQ VEN104a just to fill the whole in my set. The same seller with the above has a VEN104a in 67EPQ now, finally... If I'd realized this last night I might have grabbed this for combined shipping... as it is, now, I'm just going to sigh, roll my eyes, and be a bit annoyed. 
    I am still waiting to see if pre-graded Digital Bolivars will start showing up on eBay. If I can get them pre-graded in good grades for good prices I'll probably expand the set to include those and update the name from just "Strength and Sovereignty," but I don't really want to go through the hassle of grading these myself. I think the uniformity and sameness of these is hurting collector interest though and that might hurt dealer interest. I'm noticing that P-110 through P-113 don't seem to have done well, but P-114 did because it has a new back and, of course, it is the 1 Mil.
     
     

  4. Revenant

    So, where does "Harare" come from?

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Notes
    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 then that got "corrupted" / changed to "Harare," which became the name for a predominantly black residential area that is now called "Mbare."
    I say "corrupted" in quotes because that was the wording used by a source I found on the evolution of "Harare." But clearly the population attaches no stigma or taint to the newer form, or the capitol wouldn't have been named that - they would have used the original "Harawa" in that event, I would think. As it is, I'm not sure why they didn't if what I've found is correct. Unless the intent was to use the name of that residential area and not necessarily to honor this chieftain. But there is an agreeable symmetry in renaming it from the name of the British PM at the time of conquest to a name honoring a Shona chieftain of the same era.
  5. Revenant
    For a couple of years now I've been saying this image of a high-rise on the back of three 3rd dollar notes is just a "modern high-rise" and that it was paired with the Great Zimbabwe ruins as some kind of past / future, old / new, "progress while honoring the past dichotomy. And that may be true... but what I didn't know until today is that isn't just any building. That is the Reserve Bank Tower... home of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, finished in 1997.




    For a long time now I've been thinking that there had to be some significance to that building - you don't feature just any old tower on your banknotes... but I could never figure out what it was. Then today I just randomly see a picture of it with the caption "Reserve Bank Tower" while looking for something else online - trying to find the origins for the word "Harare."
    Now I can get all sorts of trivia on it.
    It is 393.70 ft tall or 120 meters.
    Has 28 above ground floors.
    Construction started in 1993.
    The style is Postmodernism.
    It's address is 80 Samora Machel Avenue.
     
  6. Revenant

    Coming up on 1200.

    By Revenant,


    Registry Awards
    I posted in mid-June 2020 that we'd hit 1,000 ranked users on the PMG side of the registry. I checked today just for fun and it is at 1,192 - just shy of 1,200. 
    It would be cool if we could hit 1,200 by Wednesday, but I guess we'll see. 🤷‍♂️
    Still, that's a 20% increase in under 18 months.
  7. Revenant
    So I go to the website for one of my favorite banknote dealers - one of the larger Asian dealers for PMG notes... and I see... this.

    This feels like quite a change from early to mid-2019, when Banknote World was dumping Zimbabwean inventory - PMG graded notes included - in 50% off and 60% off fire sales, seemingly desperate to be rid of it all. And that was after they'd already reduced their base prices on a number of graded Zimbabwe notes!
    I feel like, in the last year, there has just been a massive swing in the interest in these.
    I think the rising inflation and people using words like "hyperinflation" in American media are getting people interested in these again.
    The Zimbabwean notes have a big advantage over the old Hungarian and Weimar Germany notes because they are 1) Plentiful and cheap in high grades and 2) They're in English, which is just going to make them inherently more approachable than most other hyperinflation notes, like Yugoslavian notes or even Venezuelan notes.
     
  8. Revenant

    "Clearance Sale." Ha! Clearance yourself!

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Notes
    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 things to PMG it seemed.
    So, this led me to conclude pretty early on that they had either gotten tired of paying fees to PMG or they’d gotten tired of getting saddled with a lot of notes in 65/66 EPQ holders that they had to sell at a loss because they aren’t good at screening notes for submission.
    But, in either case, they seemingly had decided to “break up” with PMG (and PCGS, but, who cares about them anyway when it comes to banknotes).
    They made this even more clear about 2 weeks ago when they announced a “clearance sale” and put all PMG and PCGS graded notes on inventory on sale for 25% off. I think the funniest part of their announcement of the clearance sale was them talking up PMG and PCGS graded notes and how recognized and respected they are... and no prominent mention of TAP in that email... Interesting...
    And now, after abandoning eBay like 3 years ago, they’ve started listing a number of their PMG graded notes on eBay, I’m guessing because their clearance sale didn’t do as much as they’d hoped to clear this inventory they’ve been sitting on for a while. So I take it they are just really desperate to empty out their inventory of these notes.
    I know I didn’t order from that sale even though they had some 68 EPQ Zimbabwe notes I wanted. Why? Their order minimums – which they keep increasing.
    It used to be, in 2019, I could spend $20 and pay $4 shipping and get a couple of note I wanted, but if I spent over $50, I’d get free shipping. Then you couldn’t order at all unless you spent $50. Then you couldn’t order at all unless you spent $100. And I don’t always want to spend $100. Sometimes all I want is a small impulse buy.
    There was more than one time when Sam was in the hospital, and we didn’t have a huge amount of money to throw around and I got to order 2 notes on a 50% off sale for $20 and pay the shipping and get out with 2 notes for my Zimbabwe set for $24.
    Then in 2020 their customer service became absolute garbage. Every time they screw something up it takes 3 weeks to get a $10 refund from them. And those corroded Zimbabwe coins I got? That was from Banknote World. Never ordering coins from them again. Ever.
    But, here’s the thing with TAP, and I’m just going to say it: TAP is garbage. Absolute, total, garbage.
    They put grade RANGES, of 60-70 on notes… which is meaningless. Utterly. Totally. Meaningless. “It could be spun gold (70) or it could be worthless (60-63)! We aren’t going to say! But it isn’t a fake! Which is a promise you’d hope any dealer would make and stand by!” It's like they woke up one day and completely forgot the entire point of Third Party Grading - that, when buying sight unseen, it's nice to know you're not just taking the word of the person selling it to you that it is in good condition and authentic. This is like asking the fox to guard the hen house after serving a few years on supervised probation with a sheep dog.
    So… Yeah. Garbage.
    I hope they know what they’re getting into, because especially after PCGS Goldshield cratered, there is 1 sheriff in this town, and that is PMG. PMG owns this space. And they would have almost no chance on a good day, but they are crippling themselves with these non-grade, wishy-washy grade ranges.
    So. Yeah. Have fun with the “Clearance Sale,” guys. Pack ya bags and “clear” yourselves out. I’m almost certainly never ordering from you again and I’m never order a TAP banknote, even second hand. I’m not helping you establish a market for your dreck.
  9. Revenant

    The P-72 at last. :)

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Banknotes
    Today I officially got a P-72 Zimbabwean banknote for my wife for my birthday. I think it actually came right around a month ago but as of today it is officially “mine” and I can list it. Anyway… 
     

     
    It came with a circulated 500,000 note as a tag along.
     

     
    At a whopping $265 – a very high price tag for this set, making it cost about 1/10th as much as the rest of the 100-note set combined and beating the next most expensive note by a factor of ~2.5 – this was a bit of a painful one to pull the trigger on but I just had to have this or I don’t think I’d ever be able to feel fully satisfied with the set.   
    This is / feels like a pretty big thing because it finally completes my 3rd dollar banknote set by pick #. 
     
    This means the list of accomplishments in my Zimbabwean banknote collection (Gradually, then Suddenly) for 2021 includes: 
    First dollar banknote set complete by pick # - I added the P-3 at last. 
    First dollar traveller’s checks complete by pick # x2 sets 
    2nd dollar bearer checks complete by pick # - I filled in the last 3 holes, one with a top pop I sent in myself. The only thing I think that is arguably missing here is the P-46a sub-type. 
    3rd dollar banknotes complete by pick# - I have hardly ever seen a 73b, a 74b, or a 76b for sale and I refuse to pay $140 for a grade 15 just to say that I have that variety. 
    A whole bunch of raw gas coupons added and added to the set with a placeholder. 
     
    The set is complete by pick number from P-1 to P-12, from P-15 to P-23, and from P-32 to P-104. 
     
    For the first time since I expanded the set to include all the pick numbers there are fewer than 10 holes / gaps in the set.  
     
    6 of those holes are the Cargill Bearer checks – I’ll try my best down the road but… those are hard, and I just don’t feel bad about not having them! 
     
    2 of those gaps are notes that, as discussed in other entries, I’m not convinced deserve to even have their own pick numbers (P-28 and P-31). 
     
    And the last hole is a P-105, and… does anyone think I won’t get that as soon as I’m good and ready?  
     
    Looking at it, seeing that last gap in the middle of that huge, otherwise unbroken, 70+ note block… Feels nice! And I’m a little shocked and in awe. I would not have believed I’d get here in 2019, especially not in just 2.5 years. 
     
    At this point, my set has more notes and varieties and more images of notes in higher grade / better condition than many of the sites I used to learn about the collection and build mine.   I feel really good about reaching this point. REALLY REALLY Good. 
     
    But every time I hit a milestone like this though the “road ahead” becomes a steeper climb. Lol 
     
    Last night I also won a new P-46b unopposed. The P-46b in the set is one of the three notes I submitted myself earlier this year, but it disappointed with a 64EPQ. I was happy enough to get to have the 2nd dollar set, but, as I long suspected would be the case, not long after I just graded them myself the dealer I get so many of these notes from started popping up with more 2nd dollar bearer checks in high grade for cheap. They've been listing a lot of things in the range of P-39 to P-49 in 67 and 68 EPQ grades the last couple of weeks.
     
     
    I'm a bit salty over this because I got charged sales tax again this time when I haven't been charged sales tax the last couple of times I've bought from them. That brought the price up to $37.88. If I'd known I'd be hit with tax and pay almost $38 and not $35 I would have just bought the note from them through their site. It's $35 on their site and I won with a $30 bid, but I could have used their 10% discount code, not paid shipping and gotten out for $36.50... At the end of the day, it's $1.38. Not a big deal, but still mildly annoying. I'm getting tired of this on again / off again with this seller and eBay on Sales tax. Between that and the discount code on the site I'm increasingly convinced that I need to just give up on eBay wit this seller as long as that 10% code is on offer. However, as Mike has pointed out, a lot of their better stuff goes to eBay on auction, and doesn't show up on their site until much later, if it shows up at all. So waiting and hoping to see it on the website is a bit of a risk.
     

     
    It's a little funny to me that this post is focused on the two different 10,000 dollar notes in two of the series / sets that have them. There's a total of 5 $10,000 denominations, with P-14 (RARE!), P-17 (Dirty Common), and P-24 (RARE) rounding out the group.
  10. Revenant

    Well, let's just call them out on it!

    By Revenant,


    Venezuelan Bolivares Soberanos
    I found a Yahoo Finance article that takes the digital bolivar - newly born less than 2 weeks ago - and throws it right under the bus.  

    Let's just lay it all out there:


    So I guess, after a lot of uncertainty and talk and murkiness, it is official. It's not a CBDC. It is not blockchain based.
    This is like the Long Island Ice Tea company renaming themselves "Long Island Blockchain" to cash in on the hype and get bid up - which actually worked on at least a short term basis for the company I think.
    How sad... They don't even want to bother printing the notes anymore but they can't go cashless because too much of what little of an economy is left depends on cash transactions.
    Per the article, just like in Zimbabwe, the 3rd redenomination is more about banking, computers and software than anything else. Also like in Zimbabwe with the 4th dollar (now the 4th Bolivar) it is going to be large irrelevant because the economy is mostly dollarized and using the US dollar and the people are fleeing / rejecting the new currency before it even gets out the gate.

    So, at this point we're up to three redenominations having removed 3, 5 and 6 zeros respectively. So Venezuela is up to having lopped off 14 zeros in 3 redenominations in about 14 years..
    Zimbabwe did 3, 10, and 12 and removed 25 zeros in 3 changes of currency in about 3 years- making the Venezuelan's look like amateurs! Total novices, really.
    I was pretty against the idea of continuing past P-114 when I thought this was going to have a blockchain component. Given that this is just a new fiat currency with a disingenuous name, I'm a little more inclined to continue with the new Bolivares. This does kind of wreck my "Strength and Sovereignty" name...
    "Strength and Sovereignty, Blown to Digital Bits?"
    .
  11. Revenant
    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 holders - and that the 66s are perfectly consistent with the goals I set for the set in 2015...
    But things have changed since 2015! The 68s aren't $100 anymore. Contrary to what one dealer in Florida has been hyping for 6+ years, most of these have not held up well and people paying top dollar for 68s in 2015 are sitting on steep drops in value now.
    Which will help serve as a reminder to keep the prices I pay on the lower side and not completely forget practicality. I've paid over $100 a few times now for some specific notes and that may even happen again but I get really reluctant around $50.
    And I think a slow, gradual upgrade process may be inevitable. I just don't know that I'll be able to fully keep myself from impulse buys over time as I also work on other things and this becomes less of a major focus for me.
    To my surprise, I even find myself, I think for the first time, considering upgrading my 10G coins - getting MS66s to bump up some of the 65s and make that set just that little bit stronger over time - the 1876 and 1877 are particularly appealing for this. They're common and pop up in MS66 often enough to make it an easy and affordable upgrade if I ever decide to bite the bullet. But those will be harder sells. I suspect those will have to wait until after I get 20 Kroner and Swiss 20F coins that I want for my world gold type set.
  12. Revenant

    A P-29, another step closer?

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Bearer Checks
    I was just messing around online and on eBay and I saw that one of my favorite dealers, who has been powering my set's (and my competition's set, and Mike's thrice cursed upstart of a set) towards completion, was listing a 67 EPQ grade copy of the P-29 note. It isn't competition for the 68 EPQ note that someone has in their set (not that I'm much competition for them grade / pointwise these days anyway ) but it's still a great, superb gem copy of the note that was available for sale at a reasonable price that I could just buy and didn't have to have a slap-fight over and lose at the last second to a sniper, so I took it. I got it for $33.80, which I think is solid for this one. 
    The P-28 and P-29 are two notes that you need for a complete pick set but I haven't been overly concerned about them - I've been okay with not having them in the set because they are almost identical to the P-30, which is far more common. The main differences are the serial number prefixes - the issue dates and redemption dates are the same. The P-28 has an earlier issuance date (Oct 2005) but prefixes starting with A like the P-30. But, with this one popping up, I wanted it, I can afford it, the price seemed reasonable, and so I just got it.


    Getting a P-29 takes a small bite out of the last major hole in GTS, which is dominated by the oh-so-hard to get and oh-so-expensive in any condition Cargill Bearer Checks. At one time I'd collapsed 28-30 and 31-32 into 2 slots instead of 5 just because they were such low priorities for the set. But... we're coming to the end. And the set can't truly be complete without them.
    I showed my wife an image / screencap of the whole set, just to show off how far it had come and I was super proud of it and the first thing she says is, "What are all those up there?" pointing to the big, gaping, hole.  

    My P-32 was the first note from this group and it was a 66 EPQ that I got for cheap. I may convince myself to bump that up one day to get a 68... but I'd rather add a P-31.
    Near to the end folks... About time for the RBZ to start pumping out another 25 note series!
     
  13. Revenant

    The person on this note...

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Notes
    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 believed she was born around 1840 and she would have been 45-50 at the time of her death. In the lead up to and after independence (the war for independence became the “2nd Chimurenga“) she was honored by Zimbabweans with statues, street names, naming hospitals, songs, novels and poems.
    I'm wondering what they based the image on. I can't imagine there are many surviving photos or portraits of someone who was born, lived, and died in pre-colonial Southern Africa, but I could be wrong about that. By 1890 photography was getting more accessible.
    Wikipedia just shows the one image: It looks like there are a LOT of statues of her in Zimbabwe based off this one image but it does look like there are others.


  14. Revenant

    So, about that "Digital Bolivar" and those notes...

    By Revenant,


    Venezuelan Bolivares Soberanos
    So August was a crazy month with the move and both kids starting new schools and Shandy starting a new job and the cruise. September hit with sickness, covid scares, dead car batteries...
    So the news of the Digital Bolivar hitting around August 6th was pretty much perfect timed for me to completely miss it. What time I did devote to coin and currency collecting mostly went to obsessing over my Zcoin submission.
    Yes! The BCV timed the release of this leak to thwart me! I do not overstate my own importance with this post at all in any way.
    This announcement of a Digital Bolivar seems like a disappointment and a mess rolled into one... these 5 new notes all using the same portrait of Bolivar that they have used for the last 7 VES notes... Talk about phoning it in...

    Also... A coin!!! I wants it! I'm gonna get it! 
    While they did essentially change the colors and reprint from the first to the 2nd series of the VEF, when they did the 2nd redenomination and rolled out the VES you got a new 8-note series with mostly new portraits (mostly) and new back designs. When they reused the portrait from P-108 for P-109 to P-114 we at least got a new back design.
    I haven't seen the back of these yet but I'm REALLY hoping they at least changed the back to a new image / park/ landmark.
    The articles I've seen suggest that there will indeed be new physical notes for the new "Digital Bolivar," which honestly makes almost no sense. I just read this and think, "Why?!?" How is it even a digital currency if you print notes? There's been some confusion from what I've seen on if the new Digital Bolivar will be blockchain based or not but I just can't imagine why they wouldn't make it block hair based - the petro was going to be, if it had ever really gotten off the ground. I guess we'll see if this one does better than the petro. I kinda doubt it. But if this tanks they'll have tainted the name "Digital Bolivar" forever.
    About 3 or 4 months ago I'd rather foolishly drafted out comments / descriptions about some of this for P-112, P-113, and P-114 notes, wrongly thinking that there wouldn't be more major developments until 2022 and I'd get to buy those three notes and have those comments be reasonably current for a while.
    Well, I now own 1 of those 3 notes, and those comments have been dated for almost 1.5 months.  Back to the editing room...
     
  15. Revenant

    Parent medicine? Alcohol and Retail Therapy?

    By Revenant,


    Hyperinflation Notes and Sets
    Today is a day that might lead to retail therapy, but I’m going to try to convince myself to not waste money on a knee-jerk purchase that I’m not going to want in the long term. The leading contender for bad ideas is a New P-114 Venezuela note - the new 1 Million Bolivar note. There's a 67 EPQ on sale for not much money but I know long term I'll want a 68EPQ and it won't cost that much more when one comes up. There is also a lot of strong cheap wine in the house... so there's that.  
    So, Sam spiked a 102 degree fever last night. Brought him home and put him to bed with Ben. He woke up this morning still running hot but still acting pretty happy. We figured he would just burn through whatever and be fine, he’d just probably have to stay home tomorrow.
    Ben, on the other hand… Ben woke up seeming mostly okay, was complaining of stomach pains by 7:30 and was puking by 8:00 AM… so off to Urgent care we go!
    Another $150 copay later… Both are still Covid-negative. Ben has a stomach virus. He’s looking at about 72 hours of misery while Shandy and I try to keep the rest of us from getting it.
    I don't think I've seen Ben decline so hard so fast since he got the flu 4 years ago.
    I'm hoping at least some of the $195 in copays I've made in the last 10 days will come back from BCBS later - at least hopefully the $75 for Sam.
    Sam, the one we thought didn’t really need to go in, the one we thought was fine, has an ear infection. He’s on anti-biotics now. He’d been acting fine but by the time we got him home he was starting to grab his ear and show signs of discomfort.
    So both kids are sick with unrelated illnesses, falling ill within 18 hours of each other. That’s parenthood for you! But since Sam does NOT have what Ben has, we need to try to keep Ben from getting Sam sick.
    I have a long list of things in my eBay watch list calling my name right now… So many temptations to go next to that P-114. I also just keep getting tempted to buy a P-109a and a P-104 in 65EPQ for $15 each but... That's a road to future regret, and I know it.
    I got the latest addition to my Venezuela set in yesterday and added it to my signature set. There’s currently no competitive slot for it. It’s a P-113.
    I got this from the mailbox last night, opened it up, opened my laptop, looked at my wife and said, "Sorry. I have to go full nerd now."

    I’m thinking that, unless they go all-in with the digital bolivar and don’t issue any more notes, they really need to change the design up after these. It is getting hard to get excited about these things with them all looking… oddly the same, shall we say.
    My wife likes to poke fun at my Zimbabwean P-1 type set - which is basically a signature collection - but other than color and numbers there may be even less difference between these Venezuela notes. At least the P-1 varieties have different signatures and (sometimes) different watermarks.
    Below we have P-108, P-109b, P-110a, P-110b, P-111a, P-111b, and P-113a.


    I was looking at my comments for the Zimbabwe 3rd dollar set recently and I think I might try to go back soon and bolster those with some more information on what’s shown in some of the images on the back of the notes. I'm thinking about building in references or links to other notes in the set (1st dollars) where I talk about the Zimbabwe Ruins in more detail, adding information on St. Mary's Cathedral and the Parliament Building....
    It’s a little funny to me in that I was very happy with where I’d gotten that signature set to heading into the awards last year - and it did win! - but now I’ve done such a massive expansion and revamp of it and I feel that it has really been kicked up a notch this year.
     
  16. Revenant

    We're back! Woohoo!

    By Revenant,


    Venezuelan Bolivares Soberanos
    That was a long outage... but.... I have returned!
    Just in time too. I have a fun new note coming in a week or so to talk about... and more on the way me thinks!
  17. Revenant
    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 as "gem." A 65 or higher is gem Uncirc, so... as advertised. Can't complain about getting what you paid for, right?
    Since the cert#s are active in the system already I've already plugged them into my competitive and signature sets! I wasn't excited about getting to fill those holes at all!

    Competition-wise these additions are far from game changing but I'm still happy to see 100% on that set, and it is just going to be what it's going to be until and unless I decide to drop big-bucks for a P-3a, P-3b or P-3c to smackdown with the other 3 in the top 4.

    Of course, it would be wonderful if one day I could collect all three of those rare varieties and achieve the same thing with P-2, P-3 and P-4 that I've achieved with P-1. That would be INSANE! Such a mind-blowing achievement to me. But that's for later.
    For today, in other news, Mike was nice enough to point out to me that he's trying to "ninja" me in the Billions short-set. So this one is for you, Mike:



    A 3 point upgrade, bumping my 65 EPQ (in an old gen holder) to a new 68 EPQ. Just so you can work just a little harder, my friend. 
    I'll have to work on bumping up my 1 Billion P-83 and my50 Billion P-87 later and even then I suspect you may one-day over take me, but you will have to bring an A game.
    I am REALLY curious though to see if the note that comes is really going to be an AB prefix (The seller has more than one, so I don't consider this guaranteed). But an image of a 67 EPQ they have for sale also shows an AB prefix and so I'm thinking the seller got a wad of AB prefix notes and cherry-picked and sent in several so I'm hopeful. Anything other than AA is pretty rare in the later 3rd dollar notes (purely in my subjective experience) since they were in  print for such a short time. If this note IS an AB prefix it'll get added to my sig set and the AA prefix 65 EPQ will stay too. If is an AA prefix I'll drop the 65 from the sig set - like I did with my new 20T replacing the old one. 
    I also (to save on shipping, naturally) picked up a new VEN111b for my Venezuela set, to compliment my VEN111a.

    Since I have the a and b for VEN110 and VEN111 now I've also added a slot for VEN109a in my signature set and I'm going to make that an official goal - a and b for all three of those.
     
  18. Revenant

    The questionable future of the "STAMP CANCELLED" designation

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Traveller's Checks
    When I bought a P-15 note off a dealer a while back it just had "Exceptional Paper Quality," no "Stamp Cancelled" designation.

    So I was surprised when I submitted my 12 traveller's checks and all 12 got the label.

    The new P-17 I just got, which has a cert# indicating it was submitted after mine were submitted and graded, does not have the designation.

    So, I'm really not sure what this means... I'm not sure if they just forgot to include it on this one (which I think was one of 4 or 5 the seller submitted with this group) or if they aren't sure if they're going to keep using it or not, or what.
    But this introduces the idea that my 12 are the only ones that have this label / comment and they may stay that way.  I wonder if that would make them more or less valuable?
    The joys of trying to build registry sets over time and with notes you bought and which were graded by others over a longer span of time.
    Side note, but you can really see that Zimbabwe bird watermark (or at least the outline of it) when you look on the back of these things, at least in my scans.
  19. Revenant

    Another P-3 explodes at auction on eBay....

    By Revenant,


    1st Dollar Banknotes
    So after a 66 EPQ P-3b went for about $370 last week, today, a 67 EPQ went for a whopping $761 + $10 shipping. That... is... something.

     
    My P-3d and P-3e, which where only acknowledged as received 5 days ago, are already scheduled for grading... So PMG seems to really be on it and I'm hoping to get grades on those by the end of the month maybe.
    Even if they grade well, they're still a d and an e, so I won't have struck it rich. But at least I'll have some P-3s in my set.
    Wow.
  20. Revenant

    My new P-17, and going deeper down this rabbit hole.

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Traveller's Checks
    I didn’t get a chance to dig into this as much as I wanted to during the move, so this post has been somewhat “on hold.”
    In late July I noticed a seller had a P-17 note for sale - a 64 EPQ - starting at $12 + shipping and it popped up in my saved search email. This doesn’t sound like something that would get my attention normally since the two I graded myself got 64 EPQ and 66 EPQ and so I don’t really “need” this, and it doesn’t upgrade my set. HOWEVER! This P-17 was stamped 18 Oct 2004. That’s the same date stamp that was on a 65 EPQ P-17 I lost out on when Bonezdogg sniped me with 2 seconds to go with a bid about 55 cents higher than my max. He won that one for $47 + shipping + tax - maybe tax. I was seriously so mad when I lost out on that by such a narrow margin. I was salty about that for days when what showed up in their set and I knew who'd beat me. 


    While I already have one in that grade and one in a higher grade, I wanted and still wanted that note for the date stamp. So, I decided to watch it… but then I noticed the seller had a 65 EPQ P-17 starting at $20. So, I watched both. I decided I’d try for one or both depending on how things were looking.
    The notes were ending at about 3 AM Monday so when the 64 EPQ had picked up a bid and the 65 EPQ hadn’t I put in a bid at like 11 PM Sunday night and went to bed. I woke up to see that I’d won the 65 EPQ unopposed for $20 ($27 after s&t) and someone else walked off with the 64 EPQ unopposed for $12 + s&t. I was pretty stoked about this! At the time I lost out on the other one I was frustrated to have lost out on such a desirable date stamp (to me) but I knew I was barely willing to pay want I’d bid and I knew at the time I was better off just sending mine in and seeing what grades I got and I got that confirmed when I got my 66 EPQ. But I still wanted that date stamp! And now I’ve won this one in the same grade for half the price.
    Sometimes patience does pay off. The note has made it to the US from the international dealer and should be in-hand in a few more days - the first note the be delivered to the new house.

    The nice thing here is one of the notes I graded myself was also stamped on that 18 OCT 2003, that one a P-19:

    I also have a P-16, a P-17 (or 2), a P-18 (or 2), and a P-19, all stamped as PAID Inward Clearing by the RBZ on 08 Dec 2003. That’s 4 of 6 notes for a set of Traveller’s checks stamped on that date. This is probably not surprising given that I got all of those from the same seller who probably got a bunch of them from the same person / place, and they just got a bunch from that day / batch. But it still raises interesting possibilities - date sets / sets that have all the dates the same, branch / location / stamp sets where all 6  notes come from the same branch / location with the stamps or sets of the same note from different branches. You could really go nuts digging into this just playing with the stamps and dates.
    Also, incidentally, the stamps on for 08 Dec 2003 in the checks below are all upside down.  




    The same seller had a P-15 in 65 EPQ but I didn’t go for it even though it got no bids, and I could have snapped it up easy - it is the same grade and has the same stamps with the same dates as another P-15 I bought from the same seller. So I feel it adds no value to my collection of these.
    I have been checking and watching the pop reports for these and I did see a small uptick in the populations for P-15 and P-17, but just for those 2, not for the others. So, I’m guessing this is the result of this dealer submitting these for resale. This also has me thinking there’s no value in buying raw checks from this dealer because they’re already submitting what they have that seems promising and this also makes me think this dealer doesn’t have any good / promising notes for P-16, P-18, P-19, and P-20. Maybe I’m wrong and they’re just taking their time. However, very interestingly… they got a new 66 EPQ P-17. Mine isn’t the sole finest anymore. But I haven’t seen that one offered for sale… yet.

    It's a little funny to me that I'm doing such a deep dive on these but I'm largely ignoring what I thought would be my "next thing" for the Zimbabwe set after my pick-set was done, that being getting more Replacement notes or more non-Replacement notes to compliment my existing Replacement notes. But I just find these / these stamp and date variants oddly interesting and I'm going a bit nuts but I'm enjoying it so much.
  21. Revenant

    The P-3s

    By Revenant,


    1st Dollar Banknotes
    Today I got the email from PMG that they got my submission of a Zimbabwean P-3d and P-3e that I'd bought raw to finally fill that gap in my first dollar set. The d and e aren't as desirable as the a or b but they're still quite nice.
    However, the day I was getting ready to mail those off to PMG a dealer listed a high grade P-3a and a high grade P-3b for sale starting at a low price on eBay with a 10 day timer / run. I knew I probably wouldn't win because I expected them to go for about $125 and I just wasn't willing to spend that for them right now but I wanted to know what they'd go for. I was surprised!
    The 3a went for about $230 and the 3b went for about $370. Lots of bidders. A few of them wanted these things BAD I guess.
    lol. Once again, glad I knew going in I had no chance. I mostly don't see much inflation / price increases going on with these but it does seem to be happening with the rarer / highly desirable varieties and notes.
    PMG seems to be moving fast. I'm hoping to find out how the P-3d and P-3e did at grading sometime in September and have them back home for imaging well before December. I'm going to love having a 100% complete 1st dollar registry set at last.
     
  22. Revenant

    The newest Zimbabwean note, the $50, P-105.

    By Revenant,


    2019 Series Zimbabwe Dollars
    In other news, Mike pointed out to me that the $50 note, the P-105, finally dropped after about 6 months of talk.

    That statue on the note is the statue / monument to the unknown soldier, which is in the National Heroes Acre (which is actually about 57 acres). This is also where the "Eternal Flame of Freedom" / "Eternal Flame of Independence" is - you see that show up in a few different places, including on the old P-3 notes I'm grading soon, the P-99 (&P-101) and the P-97.
    No clue yet who this person is supposed to be.
    I like the color on this one though. It looks similar to the old P-40s - only talking about the color here. Those notes (bearer checks) look nothing like this.  
     You get different values on this thing depending on what you reference. Some articles put the value at US$0.59-0.60 based on prevailing official bank rates and some put it at US$0.35 based on black market rates. Other black market rates I see would put it at about US$0.13-0.14. In either case, it isn't worth much.
    If they had any sense they would have skipped these completely and done $100, $500, $1000 and $5000 IMO but they're afraid that releasing new notes too fast will spook people with memories of 2006-2009.
    But inflation is still running at 106% (down from ~800%).
    They are again allowing the US dollar in parallel with the ZWD so you're back to dollarization.
    The new note still won't buy a loaf of bread - it takes two of them. You still need a huge wad of bills to make any reasonably sized purchase.
    People are already worried about the fact that they are seeing 1 or 2 new, higher denominations every year.
    People simply aren't this dumb.
    They're already talking about the fact that more, higher, denominations will probably be coming in articles announcing this one.
    The RBZ might be thinking that releasing new denominations slower is going to make people less alarmed and have them not remembering 2006-2009, but, they remember. The kids know about it. The fear and the awareness is there.
    This is now the 5th design in the new series and the 7th issue / slot (if you have the P-99 and P-100 bond notes separately like they are in the world catalogue and the registry here). The 4th dollar had 7 designs and denominations and included a $100 and $500 notes. I think we'll get both of those and have the new dollar equal the run of the 4th dollar within a year and we may see a $1000 note and see the new series exceed the run of the 4th dollar by late 2022 or early 2023 at the rate they're going. I guess we'll see how long they stick to their guns and keep denying facts.
  23. Revenant

    Upgrading my P-93 $5 note.

    By Revenant,


    4th Dollar Banknotes
    A couple of nights ago I was able to win a new TOP POP (for now) 67 EPQ P-93 note that can upgrade / replace my 64 EPQ that I got last year as a hole filler just to have the set complete. I spent about $36 all in and decided to this rather than go for a $51 68 EPQ 10 Billion note for now.
      
    At this point I don’t know if it will arrive here or if mail forwarding is going to send it to the new house by the time it’s all said and done. We have 15 days until we move. Given past experience with this seller I think it will arrive here within a few days of the move.
    I'm still debating how far I'll ultimately go and how much I'm ultimately willing to spend to upgrade the Zimbabwe set. The few 64s and 65s I have are definitely up for upgrades over time as 67/68 examples come up at reasonable prices, but I'm finding that most upgrades I'm seriously willing to consider have to be 3 point upgrades for $40 or less.
    This is only about the 3rd time I’ve done a direct upgrade of an existing note in the set - and one of those was bought by my wife without me knowing what it was. There have been 2 or three times though were I had a replacement and got a regular issue in a different grade that earned me more points - or vice-versa.
    I find anything for $50+ or anything that is only a 2 point upgrade a lot less appealing. I have almost no interest in 1-point upgrades, especially when I already have a 67. The cost / benefit just isn’t there for me as a 67 is already a superb gem Uncirc and a dang fine note for any collection.
    The ZIM93 is kind of the poster child for why I'm reluctant to buy anything below a 67 or 68 for the VEN104 - I actually think about this note every time I think about giving in and buying a VEN104 in a lower grade. At the time I bought that 64 EPQ I already knew that it really wasn't what I wanted - I already knew that I really wanted at least a 65 or preferably a 66, but it was the only graded example I'd ever seen and I wanted that set to be complete - and it only cost me about $20. Now I've seen at least 3 67 EPQs of that note come up for sale - and it has only been maybe 1-1.5 years. Not long in the grand scheme... but it did feel good to have the 4th dollar become one of my first 100% complete Zimbabwe sets.
    At least one higher grade, more recently purchased note that is likely to get upgraded at some point is my 66 EPQ P-100. It is a 66 EPQ that is in a set that is full of 67s and I don't see myself buying anything lower than a 68 EPQ for that set in the future, and I may ultimately bite the bullet and build out a full 68 EPQ set of those. 
    This P-93 also probably will not be the last upgrade to the 4th dollar set. I have a P-65 P-94 and P-95 that will probably both get bumped up to 67s or 68s down the line when the opportunity comes up and my P-92, which is a 66 EPQ, may get replaced with a 68 EPQ at some point because 68s of that note can sometimes be had for just $30-35, like this P-93 I just snagged.

  24. Revenant

    The VEN 104 is starting to get.... annoying...

    By Revenant,


    Venezuelan Bolivares Soberanos
    I'm starting to get frustrated and impatient for some VEN 104s to pop up in good grades. There's a 65 EPQ and a 66 EPQ that keep getting relisted and going unsold because... no one wants those. Anyway...
    I'm getting tempted to just snap up that 66 just to fill in the hole in my Soberano set that keeps taunting me but I know that's a mistake.
    The rest of the set just came together so fast and so easy and now that one gap is taunting me and graded examples of the new 2021 notes still haven't hit the market yet to distract me...
    I want a 67 EPQ or a 68 EPQ. I just paid to get a 68 EPQ of the 102a to replace a 66 EPQ 102a*. I just put money into bumping a 66EPQ VEN91 to a 68EPQ in the competitive set... I don't want to buy any more 66 EPQs right now! Even if it is cheap!
    I'm probably ultimately going to try to make all the 66 EPQs in my Venezuela competitive sets 68 EPQs, but I'm going to try to get different varieties to simultaneously build up the signature set in a fun way. I'm not going to start actively chasing variety sets, but if you're upgrading anyway, why not at least get different varieties so they build-on / expand what you have instead of just making redundancies?
    I have money to spend and stress shopping to do... If these notes don't pop up soon I may start upgrading Zimbabwean 3rd and 4th dollar notes and then the wife is really going to be looking at me sideways...  
  25. Revenant

    Operation Sunrise and Zombie Dollars

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Bearer Checks
    So, apparently "Operation Sunrise" has been used as the name for military operations in WWII and the Vietnam War, but it was also the name given to the RBZs and Zimbabwe's "plan"  in 2005 to bring inflation under control by cutting 3 zeroes off the currency and make the 2nd dollar in the 1st redenomination. I say "plan" because I don't know why they ever thought it would work. But the release of the 2nd Dollar Bearer Checks were the first part of Zimbabwe's "Operation Sunrise."
    I've always tried to make my main competitive sets for my Zimbabwe collection do a decent / respectable job of standing alone as individual sets an not just as competitive chunks of "Gradually, then Suddenly." I think I've mostly achieved that with the First Dollars, the 3rd Dollars (and sub sets thereof), the 4th dollars and the "new" / modern Z dollars, but I think the 2nd dollars lost out and got the short end of the stick with presentation. I've been doing a bit of work to go back and fix that - building out the set description better and finally taking more advantage of the fact that note descriptions in competitive and signature sets can be different to allow me to make the 2nd dollar set "stand alone" better. As part of this re-vamp I'm renaming the set "Operation Sunrise."
    I feel like that has to be one of the more ironic names. That set / series wasn't the dawn of a new day. It just be came the first in a long series of failed attempts at a reboot of the national currency.
    On that note, I've also changed the name on my New dollars set from "Zimbabwe Dollars Reborn" to "Zimbabwean Zombie Dollars," because that currency is surely the monetary version of the walking / shuffling dead.