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Revenant

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Journal Entries posted by Revenant

  1. Revenant
    So today the mail carrier delivered my new Soberanos notes. A new crop of 67 EPQs that will help fill out most of the 2018 notes and start me into 2019 - I think I'll probably move to get the remaining 3 2018/2019 notes soon and then I'll just have the 2021 series.
    So here is where I'm going to sound like a crazy person.... the seller sent a P-107a. The listing title only said P-107 - it did not list a sub-type. HOWEVER, the picture for the listing showed a P-107b.
    So... As it happens, I didn't have one of these before, so this wasn't a problem for me. But, if I'd had a P-107a, and I'd been wanting a P-107b, I would have been Sooo annoyed. If this had happened when I was trying to get my complete variety set for the 2nd series of the 1st Zimbabwean dollar I would have been fit to be tied.
    So, note to self - don't trust the picture if the sub-type / variety isn't listed in the title of the auction / listing!

    Be honest, folks. Am I crazy?  Am I losing it?  
    Also: I'm keeping my promise to myself - I'm not going to into collecting varieties and sub-types in Venezuela like I did with Zimbabwe. I'm not doing it! I swear!   Oh dear... I have a problem. 
    Edit to add: Just for fun I had to pull these out and see them together. My wife was sitting in bed next to me and said, "That is ridiculous." She said it's cool... but it's ridiculous.

  2. 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.
  3. Revenant

    1 Million Bolivares...

    By Revenant,


    Venezuelan Bolivares Soberanos
    My first love of hyperinflation is a bit quiet and dull lately but Venezuela is not disappointing. They've announced new 200,000, 500,000, and 1 Million Bolivar notes to be released soon.
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/hyperinflation-pushes-venezuela-to-print-1000000-bolivar-bills/ar-BB1ei8Dj
    The 1 Million Bolivar note will be the highest denomination Venezuela has ever issued - they always re-denominated the currency before they got to that number before - but it's only going to be worth about US$0.53.
    Like in Zimbabwe, the economy is becoming increasingly dollarized - I bet the anti-Washington government in Venezuela LOVES that - and the economy has shrunk in inflation adjusted terms for 7 straight years.
    At some point I suppose I need to get more serious about building a Soberano set, before it gets too far away from me.  
    This note suggests that Venezuela is not going to try to de-throne the Zimbabwean 100 Trillion note for the "most printed zeros" title, because they're just going with "1 Million."

  5. Revenant
    I found someone selling the last 3 notes I needed for the 4th dollar series. One of the notes was a hair lower on grade than I've been wanting to stick to for this set but I decided to go for it, get the three notes as a group, so I could have the set complete. I'll worry about upgrading things later, if I feel like it at the time.
    I'm now about 92% complete for the hyper inflation set (2nd, 3rd and 4th dollars) and 75% complete for the 1st dollar banknotes. The 1st dollar check series are a bit more difficult to deal with but overall the collection has come together quite well and these sets enjoy the #1 rank in the 2nd dollar bearer checks (P-33 to P-60), the 2nd dollar agrochecks (P-61 to P-64), the 3rd dollars (P-65 to P-91), and the 4th dollars (P-92 to P-98).
    I need to get pictures taken of the recent additions to the first and 4th dollars but I'm feeling super proud of how this has come together. I have 71 of the 100 pick #s in my overall collection (including P-13 through P-31, which are not easy to get and may be nearly impossible to get graded). I have more than one variety of the P-1, P-4, and P-48 and several replacement notes. :)





  6. Revenant

    A 2009 AA Block $1 FRN

    By Revenant,


    Federal Reserve Notes
    Perhaps proving that I have no self-control or perhaps that I just lie to myself a lot, about 30 hours after saying I was going to try to not buy anything for the next 3 weeks I bought something.

    I was looking around on eBay and saw this. I'd been wanting a $1 FRN note for a while for two reasons: 1) I wanted one for the "Currency of my life" signature set I want to keep working on as time allows and 2) I wanted one for my Zimbabwe signature set.
    That 2nd one might seem fairly odd - I'll now have about 5 US FRNs in a set about Zimbabwe - but I feel like that set needs FRNs in it to cover the period from around April 2009 to 2016. This is the period after the 4th dollar was officially suspended but before the bond notes (pegged to the US dollar) were released. During this period the US dollar and Federal Reserve Notes were the defacto currency of Zimbabwe and many people / banks had accounts denominated in US dollars. There were other currencies used at the time under the "multi-currency system" but all indications I've found say that the US dollar, as the world reserve currency, was far and away the dominant one of the group.
    This note arguably is kind of a "meh" grade - it feels strange to call a 66 EPQ "meh" but I just know that 67s and 68s are quite common for modern notes. But the note was priced accordingly and at $19 it was cheap enough for me to treat it was random impulse buy. More importantly, there were two things about this note that really sold me on it. 1) It's a 2009 dated note, so its for the "right" year for the purposes of the set. 2) It's AA block - and AA is the prefix used by Zimbabwe for most of the 3rd and 4th dollars and the first series of the Bond notes and the New series notes. Unlike the 4th dollars, the new notes and bond notes have been in production and circulation long enough to have AB, AD, and BB blocks among others. I've never seen a 4th dollar with anything other than an AA prefix. Yeah, I guess there are a few ZA prefix replacement notes but that's different. If I ever found or heard of a legitimate AB prefix 4th dollar I'd be shocked half to death at this point.
    The note also happens to be relatively contemporary with the Great Financial Crisis of '08 and has the signature of Good ol' "TurboTax Tim."
    I see there being at least one more $1 FRN purchase in my future because I have a different set of wants for the "Currency of My Life" Set. While I might include this note in that set as well, I'd like to have a 1988 note from the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank - just because my wife and I were both born in Texas in 1986 and the 1988 series seems to be the first series from after we were born.
  7. Revenant
    Most of the notes in my Zimbabwe set come to me by way of a couple of different merchants that do a lot of business and have a lot of diverse inventory for the banknotes of that country and many others. One of those two merchants is BankNoteWorld (BNW).

    One of the interesting things about buying from BNW is the fact that they send a copy of this little book with every order that includes Zimbabwe notes.

    The book has gone through at least a couple of editions that I’ve seen. The older one is thinner and doesn’t include images of the notes under UV / black light. The new edition has images of the notes viewed under UV light in order to highlight some of the security features used on notes throughout the 2nd and 3rd dollar issues.

    Because I’ve ordered from them a number of times since 2015 I’d started developing quite a collection / stockpile of these books and I ultimately sent them a message and told them to stop sending them when they filled my orders - it’s a waste of money and paper.

    The book is mostly pictures - but they’re full color pictures on good paper, which says a lot about the commitment to quality on a book they’re giving out for free. I know they’re using it to encourage people to buy the whole set and buy more notes from them but I admire the commitment to making it look and feel good.

    There is one aspect of the book that I can’t help but find disappointing though.

    There’s only one page of the whole thing that has any meaningful text or which tries to provide a narrative for the notes. That one page talks about the Bearer Checks and the Special Agro Checks of the 2nd dollar as well as the regular banknote issues of the 3rd dollar. The part of it that bugs me is that they talk about these two sets like they’re the entire story - the full set of issues made during the hyperinflation period. That’s really not true though.

    The P-11b $500 dollar note and the P-12 $1000 note were both in use during what can be considered the very first part of the hyperinflationary period. The Cargill Bearer Checks, the Traveler’s Checks, and the Bearer Check’s that span from P-13 to P-32 are all first dollar issues that are very much part of the hyperinflationary period. The 4th dollars that followed in 2009 are also rightfully part of the group.

    I know why those issues probably aren’t in the book - the merchant doesn’t have many examples of those series in their inventory. At the end of the day, the book is more of a sales document and they’re not going to spend time and money promoting something that they don’t have in stock to sell. Still, I can’t help but find it frustrating that they’ve omitted these issues and not even spared a couple of sentences to acknowledge their existence.

    It’s not exactly a definitive text on the Zimbabwe hyperinflation and its banknotes, but, again, I have to acknowledge that it is what it was meant to be, not what I’d like to see in it.

    While I haven’t done so yet, I’d love to get a copy of Philip Haslam’s “When Money Destroys Nations: How Hyperinflation Ruined Zimbabwe, How Ordinary People Survived and Warnings for Nations that Print Money.” I think that book is going to focus on the nation and the economic narrative of the event and probably not spare much attention for the Banknotes that I’ve been obsessing over, but I still think it’d be an interesting read.



  8. Revenant
    The Zimbabwe sets we all wanted. Well, the ones I wanted anyway.
    So I'm at my desk today and I get an email from Ali listing a bunch of new Zimbabwe note sets including a bunch of sets for the Third Dollar or the Trillions series. The email said they'd be coming "soon" and I was wondering when exactly that would be, but when I checked the site I saw that the Third Dollar sets were already up! The Bearer Check, Agro Check and other sets aren't out yet but honestly those aren't the ones I was hoping for anyway - I'm not collecting those series - yet.
    The funny thing was that I just made a signature set for these yesterday because I wanted an internet accessible way of tracking what I had - I came dangerously close a couple of times to buying a 10 billion dollar note I already had - I thought I just had the 1 billion dollar note. I'd scanned all the notes in for the signature set and so now I have all my pictures up.
    I'm loving that there's a full set for the 1 dollar note through the 100 Trillion note and a set for just for the 4 notes denominated in the trillions. I can actually have a 100% complete set of those! Never thought that would happen with a banknote set. I'm only about 33% on the full set.
    I think the best part of all of this is that just yesterday my wife gave me a 66EPQ 500,000 Dollar note as a belated Father's Day present (got held up in the mail).
    Now I just need to get the 20 billion and the 50 billion to finish the top 10 denominations

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  9. Revenant

    A P-11a!

    By Revenant,

    Somewhat to my surprise a PMG-graded P-11a popped up for sale in an eBay auction the other day and I decided to go for it.
    I say "somewhat" to my surprise because the P-11a, like many / most of these, isn't especially rare but you don't see every variety pop up having already been graded as a high uncirc grade every day. I think this is actually the first PMG-graded 11a I've seen and it's only recently been graded based on the holder.
    The auction ended at 10:15 PM Sunday night so I stayed up just a little later than normal (kids get me up early) and watched it end. I put my bid in with just a couple of minutes to go and won it - went to bed and paid when I got up this morning.

    I wouldn't have expected to be here a couple of months ago but I think I now have every variety of every pick number in the 2nd series of the 1st dollar except for the P-12a. That'll make the P-12a a priority for me if I ever see one pop up.
    Now that I have both P-5s and both P-11s and I'm starting to have more varieties in my 1st dollar series I'm thinking about making a new signature set that will be just the 1st dollars with varieties - something to showcase all of the 1st dollars and just the in one set. I love my full 1980-Date Zimbabwe signature set but I do worry some days about it seeming overwhelming now that it's up to about 90 notes and over 110 slots.
  10. Revenant
    A couple of weeks ago a pair of P-23 notes came up for sale - a P-23e and a P-23c, ending in that order, a couple of days apart from each other.
    I have not seen a lot of P-23s come up for sale over the last few years. One of the few I’ve seen offered is one that has a “Pick-Unlisted” label that was graded years ago, so you don’t know from the label what variety you’re getting and the seller wanted $200 for it - which has always and still seems insane for that note. This probably explains why it still sits unsold. Anyway…
    These new notes had starting bid prices of $29 - which was very reasonable.
    I was hoping to snag both if I could get them cheap, but I ended up having some competition for them. I decided to try to snag the P-23e and let the P-23c go for now. I ended up being glad I did. I won the P-23e for $38.88 + shipping + tax (set me back $47.50). The P-23c sold for about $75 before tax and shipping - two other people wanted that one bad, I guess.

    It is very nice to pick this one up though. This P-23e, with the P-22b I got in a lucky win earlier in the year, is finally giving me some in-roads and progress on a segment of the complete Zimbabwe series / collection that I’ve been pretty weak in up to this point.
    This note has one of the new style holders with a 15-year label. That got me thinking a little…
    The note itself is from 2003. It’s only 17 years old and it was made only 2 years before PMG got started.
    This realization got me thinking about the fact that the 2nd Dollar series was released in 2005 and 2006 and that PMG was just getting started and was a “cool new thing in the industry,” right at the time when the Zimbabwe hyperinflation and the collection craze over these notes was entering into its peak phase. PMG was only about 3-4 years old when the 100 trillion notes hit the street. This makes me wonder a little if this coincidence of timing helped power Zimbabwe into being #20 in the list of the countries with the most notes graded by PMG.
    This has my interest a little piqued to see if I might be able to get one of the 2005 dated 2nd dollar bearer checks in a holder with the 15-year label on it for my collection. I just can’t help but think that would be neat to have. I’m not sure what dollar value that novelty is going to have for me or what I’m going to be willing to shell out to make that happen but it’s definitely going to be “on my radar” now.
    Incidentally, 2005 is also the year I graduated from High School… and now I realize it has been 15 years since I graduated from High School… and… dangit… now I just feel old.
    Dang it! … I am old.
  11. 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!
     
  12. Revenant

    A P-44a...

    By Revenant,

    So I tried to add a new P-44 note to my Zimbabwe 2nd dollar set and it said the note wasn't eligible / wasn't allowed in the slot. The slot seems set up to allow a P-44a... P-44a. I've never heard of a P-44a. I can't find any reference in any of my research / shopping / looking around to a P-44a or a P-44b, just P-44.
    I'm assuming this a / no a thing is the reason why the system / slot is rejecting the note. I'm assuming / hoping this was just a mistake but it's a bit of head scratcher for me as to how it happened if so.
    There IS a P-46a and P-46b and a P-48a and a P-48b. Those are the 10,000 and 100,000 dollar notes in the series, with the a and b variants differentiated based on how the digits in the denomination are grouped. The P-44, the $1,000 note in the series, to my knowledge, has no such variation. 
    I've seen cases in the past with these sets where the slot just hadn't been populated with scores at all before and cases where the scores where entered for an "a" variant but not a "b" or a normal version but not a star / replacement note version (or vice versa) but I've never had a slot calling for something that didn't / doesn't appear to exist.
  13. Revenant
    Call it a "soft launch" since, for the time being, the only notes in it are going to be Zimbabwean notes that are also part of my set of that currency's notes for my hyperinflation themed set, but I've decided I'm going to make a signature set of notes that feature elephants - inspired by my sons.
    We have a membership to the Houston Zoo and whenever we go or talk about going the animal that Ben usually mentions wanting to go see is the elephants, which he absolutely loves.
    We also chose elephants as the theme for Samuel's nursery / bedding (for Ben the theme was turtles).
    Several of the Zimbabwean notes feature elephants and some of the artwork, like what appears on P-12 and P-98 is quite beautiful IMO. I've also seen / run across some notes from the Congo with some really great elephant artwork.
    Money is too tight right now for me to actively pursue this beyond maybe just setting up the set / or the bones of it, but this is definitely something I think I want to pursue more fully one of these days when time and finances allow it.
    The set will be called "A Parade of Elephants," which is the more fanciful name given to a group of elephants ("herd" is just so "blah").


  14. Revenant
    I read last year that Zimbabwe was going to have ANOTHER new currency coming to replace the RTGS dollar but then life and work got busy and I never really went back to look into the developments.
    I've been making updates to my set(s) lately though and looking into the getting the P-99 and P-100 Bond notes and this got me thinking about the fact that I haven't been seeing or hearing anything about new notes or a new currency even though it's been about 6 months now.
    It seems like they haven't released now physical paper money but they did roll out a "new" currency to replace the RTGS dollar..,. and it's called... The "Zimbabwe dollar," currency code ZWD! Which happens to be the same currency code used by the "1st dollar" that replaced the Rhodesian currency in 1980.
    So, this gives us:
    1st Dollar, ZWD (1980-2006)
    2nd Dollar, ZWN (2006-2008)
    3rd Dollar, ZWR (2008-2009)
    4th Dollar, ZWL (2009)
    Bond Notes - 1:1 USD peg (2016-2019)
    RTGS Dollar, ZWL (2019) … because, I guess just calling it the 5th dollar would just be sad and they even re-used the old currency code...
    Zimbabwe Dollar, ZWD (2019 - Probably DOA)
    Some people clearly just don't know when to give up...
    ZWD, to ZWN, to ZWR, to ZWL, and finally back to ZWD.
    We are full circle - and they still have crazy-high inflation.
    Wow.


  15. Revenant
    I’ve been taking a bit of a break from the coin collecting to build up my Zimbabwe set. The merchant I normally buy from has knocked their prices down recently so I’ve been buying and building the set while the buying is good.

    I was bidding on a P-95, 4th dollar, 20 dollar note last night and I ended up having to get it go when another bidder took it just a little higher than I was comfortable paying for it at the moment. The fact that the other bidder bid three times and bid it up to that level was a confirmation to me that I’m clearly not the only one hunting and building sets of these notes graded by PMG (and I suppose others get PCGS graded notes).

    It was a bit of a frustrating loss and I don’t know exactly when another one will come up for sale, My regular merchant doesn’t have any that are graded, just ungraded notes and I don’t want to deal with submissions right now. I may go that route eventually and acquire several raw notes and get a paid membership here for submitting them, but right now there are tons of other notes for the set that I need that I can get already graded in good, gem+ grades for low prices so I’m just not willing to go there yet.

    eBay is running a 6-8% eBay bucks promotion that I want to take advantage of so I’m probably going to go forward with buying some Trillions series (3rd dollar) notes I’ve been eyeing instead since I lost this one. I may pick up another 1st dollar note as part of that. The 1st dollar notes are awesome and tragically ignored and I’m thinking when this is all over that a solid set of 1st dollar notes will be a point of pride and a strength of this set.

    I’ve joked with my wife that this set may end up being a monument to my stress and coping with this pregnancy and the NICU stay. I’ve been obsessing over it more than a bit as a way of having something to focus on as a bit of escapism and stress relief.

    Below I've included images of the front and back of my P-12b, just for fun. It's a favorite of mine.


  16. Revenant

    And... it's Blank on the back.

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Traveller's Checks
    I just thought I'd share this as a journal now that it's here and I can get higher res images:


    it was stamped as “PAID” on Oct 26 2004 (which happens to be just a week after my birthday, the year I turned 18). It was also marked as “Zimbank Waste” on “11-10-2004,” which, depending on whether you use US or UK conventions for dates, either October 11th or November 10th of 2004. Even though I’d normally expect them to use the UK convention, I’m tempted to say they used the American one and this refers to November 10th, because this stamp seems to have been placed after the Oct 26th stamp and it just doesn’t make much sense for me for this have been stamped as “Waste” before it was stamped as “PAID.” How something that was redeemed and stamped as waste to be discarded came to be in my collection and encapsulated in gem uncirc condition is a bit of a mystery to me but... it happened somehow! Somebody kept the trash I guess – possibly foreseeing that one day there’d be people like me with an interest in these things, and they kept trash paper and turned it into something that I later paid about US$40 for 16 years later. Life is funny sometimes that way, I guess. 
     
    Some of the things I find interesting here is some of what is NOT on it. The “Date” line is blank, so they didn’t bother to date it when it was issued to someone. The name of the person it was issued to was also left blank and, even though you were supposed to have to show ID to redeem these, there’s no redemption signature on the check. So there’s no record of when it was issued, or to who, or who it was that redeemed it – at least not on the check itself.  
     
    That information might have been retained at the Chisipite Sub-Branch in Harare, which is apparently where this check was stamped as waste, but I have a feeling the answer is “No.” My guess is, based on all the blanks, at least by this point in late 2004, they were just dealing with a ton of these increasingly worthless $1,000 checks and they were doing things “fast and loose” to process them all faster. By the time this thing was redeemed, $1,000 in Zimbabwe dollars was barely worth an American quarter or dime – so who would have even cared? It wouldn’t have even bought you bread probably. 
  17. 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.
  18. Revenant

    Branching out to to Bolivares Fuertes

    By Revenant,


    Bolivares Fuertes
    The Venezuelan hyperinflation and the Bolivar / Bolivar Fuerte (“Strong Bolivar”) / Boliver Soberano (“Sovereign Bolivar”) Series got my attention last year while I was heavy into building and shopping my Zimbabwe set. I think they are cool looking notes, I love the animals on the back, and I love the fact that some of them have turtles on them, in addition to being hyperinflation notes / series. I didn’t start collecting them though because I was neck-deep in Zimbabwe, I didn’t have the budget to do both and I’ve long since decided that I’m happier doing 1 thing well than doing 5 in a very random, haphazard way. So, I stuck with Zimbabwe.
    But we are a year down the road now and my Zimbabwe set is a lot stronger and a lot more complete now. Many of the sub-sets in it and the collection overall is about 90% complete now and I am just hitting a point where making further progress is just going to keep getting harder and slower. So, it seems like a good time to consider branching out.
    Last week I noticed a seller I have bought from before was auctioning a set of 6 Bolivar Fuerte notes. There were 6 denominations that would make about a half-complete set of the 13 denominations in that series. The starting price was low, and I knew based on prior eBay sales that the auction might end at about $13-14 a note after shipping for a mix of 66 EPQ, 67 EPQ and 1 68 EPQ notes – not a bad deal.

    I knew that another dealer I have bought from before also had some of these already graded from PMG for good prices and that dealer had a 10% off sale going on this last weekend for the 4th. So, I decided to look at what they had and found that I could get 5 of the other 7 denominations from them in grades of 66 EPQ or 67 EPQ for $14 each - $12.60 after the discount / sale.
    After seeing that I was suddenly very excited! If I could win the auction Sunday night and bought the other 5 on sale, I’d have made an 11 of 13 denom set in just 2 transactions over a weekend for just $140-160.
    I did a little bit of looking and found that buying notes of similar grade one at a time from other dealers on eBay could potentially cost me $30-35 per note and / or would have required a fair bit more time and effort. I am pretty sure I would / will never get a chance to build this set easier or cheaper than this. So, I decided to just go for it!
    I did end up winning the auction for $81 after shipping. That puts the total cost of all 11 notes at $144.95 – or about $13.18 per note on average. It is hard for me to imagine building a graded set of gem / superb gem notes cheaper than that – and 7 of the 11 will be 67 EPQ or higher.
    One thing I very much like about this is that it is NOT another Zimbabwe set. The full Zimbabwe set is just so huge and building that has been such a commitment and such an undertaking – there are over 90 notes in it now. The Venezuelan set is comparatively small. Unless you start chasing varieties (which I am not going to do – for now) there are only 13 Fuerte notes and 11 Soberano notes so far (up to 2019) – 24 notes that’s it! That is smaller than the Zimbabwean 3rd dollar note set (27 notes) or the 2nd dollar bearer check series (28 notes) are individually. (Swiped the image below from an eBay merchant that is selling ungraded sets of the notes).

    This will be a nice chance to research some new people, a new country, and figure out why these animals are significant enough to the country to want to put them on a banknote. I am just getting these Bolivar Fuerte notes for now and I am not going to be venturing into the Bolivar Soberano notes until later.
    It really is scary just how much all of this “rhymes” historically with what happened in Zimbabwe just a few years prior… the first redenomination being 1000:1, the 2nd redenomination being bigger than the first, the changing of just the last letter of the ISO currency code every time… Scary. It is almost as if history repeats itself and people just do not learn.
    My wife accuses me of trying to be the “Hyperinflation King of the Registry.” I disagree with this assertion, but I would have no problem with it if it happened. 😊
  19. Revenant
    I had told myself that I wasn’t going to work on descriptions for the new checks until they got here, but it has been a week since I got the good news on the grades and I’m getting twitchy waiting for them to get here. Maybe with tomorrow’s mail! I really want to see these in their new PMG holders in person!
    So I’m working on the descriptions! The P-40, P-45, and P-46b all have descriptions up now that are consistent with the approach I’ve used in the 2nd dollar set but how to deal with the traveller’s checks is a bit more of an open question and I’m weighing options…
    Since I only had 1 of these before this (A P-15) that one note had to do the heavy lifting in the signature set with information on that 6-check set and about that particular example.
    https://notes.www.collectors-society.com/registry/notes/UserNoteDetail.aspx?UserNoteID=20885&UserCollectionID=1264
    In the competitive set I split it with the series information in the set description and just the information / discussion on that note in the competitive description for that note. I’m going to continue that practice in the competitive set, but, in the signature set…
     
     
    I have three options I’m considering…
    1) Have the information on the set and that specific note in the description for each of the 6 notes I’ll have in there.
    2) Have the information on the set on the P-15 as now but don’t repeat it on the other 5 (P-16 to P-20).
    3) Have two P-15s in the signature set, use the first to discuss the set and have the 2nd with a feature about that note P-15 note and have the P-16 to P-20 just talk about those notes.
     
     
    On a different but related front, I’m considering using the certification numbers for some of the traveler’s checks I wasn’t going to use as place holders to put in some images of the 5 2014 bond coins I’ve sent in for grading. Speaking of which, my 13 Zimbabwe coin submission is official “received” at NGC today, but with current advertised wait times I don’t expect to see those grades or coins until mid to late August, when I’ll be in a new home hopefully! I'll probably have more to say on the coins in the NGC journal soon.
     
     
    Having gotten these grades back, the question occurs, "Would I do it again?" Or rather do more? Clearly, I'm thrilled that I did these two sets but do I think I'd be willing to hunt more examples of the P-16 and P-18 to chase a full gem uncirc set? ... and I don't know!
    If these first two sets had done a little less well - like if I had at least one pick # where the best I had was an AU 55 I think there'd be more of a case for trying again to finish an uncirc. set. But with an example of each in at least 63 EPQ it is harder to have confidence that grading more sets / notes would get me an improved set. I have seen unstamped, clean, examples only get a 63 EPQ.
    To make things a step worse, many of the people that sell these things have multiples of each and the pictures / scans always look good, but I think in many cases you’re seeing scans of some of the nicer ones and what you’re seeing might not be what you get. And on top of that many of the prices on these can be surprisingly steep. I got very lucky on these. I found a seller willing to sell a full 6 note set for $30 - $5 each - and pick the nicest examples to send me on top of it. I’ve seen many sellers that want $14-$40 per check or more… and that can get expensive in a hurry! If I knew a place where I could go and look at these in hand and have more confidence in what I was getting it might be easier, but, with buying these raw online, there’s just too much uncertainty.
    All in all, I did too well with these for the cost / benefit / risk equation to seem favorable for more. I don’t think that will change unless someone else comes up with a set that can challenge the one I have now. But, if an already graded P-16 or P-18 pop up in a better grade than what I have I may be a bidder!
    Of course, if they'd all come back as AU 55 or below with this batch of 12, I wouldn’t be sending anymore after that for a very different reason.
     
    Now that I know the fate on these I need to make myself get on sending in those two P-3 (a "d" and "e" I think) notes and some (probably 7-8) gas coupons. I need to put in a question to PMG though I think and see if those can all be on one invoice or two. I also have a mechanical error I need to send in with them - a P-23f posing as a P-23e. As good as it felt to see "100%" on that 2nd dollar set, I think it's going to feel even better to see 100% on a first dollar set. I don't think I would have ever imagined that when I started this in 2015. I never would have dreamed that I'd build that set to what it is now when I just picked up a few (11) notes for it in Dec 2015 and Jan 2016.
     
    That's all for now. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I has no notes yet.  
  20. Revenant
    A recent effort in notes collecting
    I recently started collecting the Zimbabwe Trillion Series of notes. If most people are like me you might initially think that the Trillions Series refers only to the last 4 notes that are denominated in the trillions of dollars (10, 20, 50, and 100 Trillion dollars). The full series actually includes over 25 notes. The denominations run from 1 dollar to the infamous 100 trillion note. This series ran from 2007 to 2009 and come after the Bearer Cheque Series of notes that ran from 1 cent to 100 Billion from 2006 to 2007.
    If I understand the situation correctly (I freely admit I could be wrong on some of this, I'm still working on learning and reading about some of what went on and how this matches up with the notes), the Bearer Cheque Series constitutes what is generally referred to as the "2nd Dollar." The "2nd dollar" period followed after 3 zeros were chopped off the money in the first redenomination (ending the "1st Dollar"). Then the Trillion Series picked up after 10 more zeros were chopped off in the 2nd redenomination, marking the beginning of the "3rd Dollar." The "4th Dollar" (which there is a PMG registry option for - which gives me hope that we'll see a 3rd Dollar option one day) was issued in February 2009 following the 3rd redenomination -- but only for a few months. They chopped another 12 zeros off in the 3rd redenomination and then finally just gave up and stopped issuing their own money entirely in April 2009. The 100 trillion dollar notes were worth 10^27 of the pre-hyperinflation first dollars. The multiple revaluations and series of notes was a major source of confusion - for me anyway - and kept me from understanding for a long time just how bad the currency devaluation was during those few years and it still leaves me a bit fuzzy over the whole timeline.
    I've wanted to build a set like this in one way or another for a long time - basically since I started collecting coins again - in part because this set of notes and events is tied to why I got back into coin collecting. I was getting interested in coin collecting in 2006-2007 and reading articles on coinflation.com, many of which talked about what was happening in Zimbabwe at the time. For me, the coins and the paper money, the art and the beauty of it all, the gradual loss of value of the dollar and other paper currencies, and discussion of what would likely come in the future was all wrapped up together in this big interesting story that appealed to me as the son of a history teacher. I think the process engineer in me also loved the idea of looking at all of it in the context of a changing system over time and the dynamics of that systemic change.
    It really intrigued me and I wanted to at least get one of the 100 Trillion notes as a conversation piece but at the time interest in the notes was high and the notes were going for -- what I felt at the time -- insanely too much money. The funny thing is, 8 years later, I don't remember what they were going for at the time. I just remember thinking the price wasn't worth it to me. For all I know the prices I'm buying the notes at now could be just as high as what they were then -- it might just be that this time I have more money and I'm more willing to spend it on the notes. I don't know - . I wonder some days if the prices really did come down after some time passes and the interest dropped or if I'm just looser with money now. It's funny how perspectives can change, even over relatively short periods of time.
    I didn't think about it for years, but I thought of it when I started buying silver again. My wife was looking at me like I was a little crazy over the silver (maybe more than a little). I remembered these notes, remembered wanting to collect them, and realized that they might help me win her over on the silver by showing her why I wanted the silver bars as an inflation hedge. (Maybe I thought they might help me win her over and then remembered that I wanted them anyway. Anyway -- the thoughts were linked!) As it happens they actually worked really well in that regard. She was shocked when I started showing her the notes and telling her about the speed with which the money was devalued during the hyperinflationary period. Of course it helps that she doesn't really trust the stock market any more than I do these days.
    So I looked into what those notes were going for on eBay again late last year. I found that they weren't all that expensive (by my current standards anyway) and a new collection/project was born! I'll stop there for now though because this is already a little long...
    To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  21. 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.
  22. Revenant
    I finally finished up the last description I wanted to write for my Venezuelan Bolivar Fuertes set and posted all of the new text to the set.
    I did most of the writing for these weeks ago but then life came up and my focus shifted back to the Zimbabwe notes again and I never finished them and I wasn't sure they were "just right" yet.
    I finished the first one and said "good enough" - get them posted and work / polish from there. It had reached the point where it was bothering me to have all of that 80-90% finished work sitting on a Word file while the set sat bare. So now its up!
    Also: My wife apparently ordered my birthday present yesterday. She was trying to keep it quiet but then Ben saw her and wanted to "help" and gave it away in a big way.
    I'm thinking there's at least 1 Zimbabwe note that makes up part of the present. I guess we'll see.
    Given this, I'm trying to commit to making no coin or note purchases until she gives me my present in 3 weeks / 22 days and I know what that is and can proceed in that knowledge - but there is one big / important Zimbabwe note that I'm seriously thinking about just biting the bullet on because of what it would mean for the set, even though part of me does think I might be overpaying for it just a little. I'm increasingly feeling like it might be worth overpaying for. I guess we'll see how it all comes out.
  23. Revenant

    Finally scored some nice wins…

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Bearer Checks
    About 2 weeks ago a P-77 came up for auction. This had me super excited because it would have completed my “Millions” set and left me needing only the $10,000, P-72 to complete my 3rd dollar set… but then someone else bid at the end and the price was getting out of hand so I let it go… sadness.
    Then about a week ago a P-3 came up that would have given me a 100% complete 1st dollar set… and the bidding got so high at the end that I didn’t even bid on it…
    However, I’ve finally scored some wins that I’m very happy about and I was able to do it because I didn’t blow all of my budget and then some on those other notes.
    The first win came about 3 days ago. It is a P-21d in 67 EPQ. This gives me a complete pick set (but not a variety set) of the 3 note, 2003 bearer check series (P-21 to P-23). I’ll see when I get it entered but I think this also might just barely give me the lead in the category (by about 10 points) and give me the #1 spot for a while. Should be fun to digitally poke jeyanth7 with a stick like that. Lol

    The 2nd win came this morning and this is the one I am really happy about - and paradoxically it’s probably one of the most homely looking “notes” in the whole series - and calling it a “note” is really generous because this thing is a check. It is not a reusable, transferable, “check” with an expiration date like the “bearer checks” and “agro checks.” It is a literal, bank-issued, single use, canceled check.

    I was very excited when this popped up. When I’d asked about these previously PMG had indicated that they weren’t currently grading these and so I’d been thinking it’d be impossible to ever have these properly represented in my signature set. But this check is clearly recently graded and indicates that they’ve changed their mind and they’re willing to certify these now. I’d removed the empty slots for these from my signature set because I thought the were unfillable. I’m not going to add slots back for all of them for now. Rather, I’m going to include this as a representative piece for now and see what develops over time. On the competitive side, depending on what happens in the next few weeks, when I add this one to my set it might be the only one of these listed in the registry and anchoring a #1 ranked set or one note.
    I had been hoping to snag that P-15 for $25 unopposed - much like I won the P-21d without anyone bidding against me, but I had to fend off a sniper that bid on it with 3 seconds left on the clock. I’d been hoping to go for a 68 EPQ P-30 note tonight but I’ve decided I’m going to have to let that one go - it’s just not in the collecting budget at the moment. I’ll need to convince myself to wait a week or two before I buy anything else. That is a bit of a bummer because the P-30, with the P-21, would give me a complete denomination set of the 1st dollar bearer checks, but there is a 67 EPQ that will end in about 9 days and I may go for that instead - still a good note in a good grade while mostly honoring my agreed collecting budget.
    I've also decided for now that I'm not going to have slots for all three $50,000 issues in the 1st dollar bearer check series (P-28 to P-30) for now and I'll just add more slots as I get them. I'm pretty happy with and I think the set will feel reasonably complete if I get a P-28, P-29, or a P-30 (most likely a P-30) and I don't necessarily feel like driving myself nuts getting all three in the near term. 
    While I still have some holes I'd like to fill as I'm able, it's getting harder, and I feel like the signature set and the collection overall is getting to a pretty mature state, where it feels pretty complete and new purchases are likely to start slowing down drastically soon. But... I've been wrong about that before.

    Just thought I'd use some screen caps to show how I'm restructuring the signature set for now. The P-15 and P-21d are going to drop into adjacent slots once they arrive.

    I am very happy with how my 1st dollar collection has improved and shaped up in the last 6 months. It feels awesome.
  24. Revenant
    Leading up to my birthday a couple of weeks back I became aware of a 100,000 Bolivar Fuerte (VEN-100) note coming up for sale and ending on my birthday. On the big day the note hadn’t got any bids. I showed it to my wife, and she told me to just bid on it and call it an extra birthday present if I won.
    I bid. I won unopposed and took it for $24.99 after shipping. Normally I don’t know if I would have popped on a 66 EPQ at that price but the VEN-100 is one of the more desirable notes in the set it seems – much like the 100 Trillion of the Zimbabwe notes - and I wanted to fill a hole in my set. As it is, this is one of the highest point-getting notes in my Venezuela set now.

    While I was waiting on that to come in the mail I saw a VEN-93 100 Bolivares Fuerte note come up for sale, this time in 68 EPQ. This note had a starting bid of $28.99 on it but I thought it could still be very worth it if I didn’t have many opposing bids and I got to get a great note to fill the last hole in my Fuertes set. I did end up winning it – on November 3rd, election day. The auction ended at 6 AM. I don’t know why the seller does this but they do, so I woke up to find out I’d won.

    Having won that, I say that there was a P-102a* (66 EPQ) and a P-106 (67 EPQ) up for bid ending within a few hours to a few days. They were from the same seller and the seller combines shipping, so I decided to wait and see what I could get. I snagged both for $19 each.


    They were paid for all together, but I won the auction for the P-93 first, so I think this counts as keeping my promise to finish the Fuertes set before starting on a Soberano set. The also gives me something to put into the Soberano set so now I can stop feeling guilty about bugging Ali and PMG to make a category so I could have an empty set.
    Somehow I managed to load up on all the "100" notes in rapid succession with this, which is a little funny.
    I really like the Soberanos. The Fuertes notes look nice but the Soberanos are very bright and colorful and even my wife commented on it with the VEN-106.
    Maybe more on this but the VEN-93 and the VEN-100 drive me nuts. The VEN-100 was the only one where they didn't put all the zeros on it and, with the coloring added in, the VEN-100 looks a LOT like the VEN-93. See the VEN-99 below for how the VEN-100 should have been handled:

    My Fuertes set is now complete but I don't get a 100% complete registry set out of it because PMG wants to include the old Bolivares notes that were issued after the change in government / constitution in 1998 but before the redenomination to the Bolivares Fuertes. So they're in this registry set but these notes have a different ISO currency code, they're part of a different series and look completely different. And I have no near-term interest in picking them up.
  25. 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.