Revenant

Thank you, Ali!

Would PMG be willing to add a set in the Zimbabwe registry for either: 1) P-99 to date (including the Bond Notes (P-99 and P-100) and the new 2019-2020 series notes. 2) P-101(?) to date, with just the new $2, $5, $10, and $20 notes (so far) for the new series from 2019 and beyond? I'd prefer option 1, just because that would give us a competitive set that includes the Bond Notes and because the Bond Notes are still being honored / circulated with the new series notes because of the supposed "cash shortage." I was previously told no on a new set for the Bond Notes when it was just the two bond notes from 2016-2017, but, now that we could have a set with 6 notes / slots (and possibly more, depending on how this goes) I thought it worth a shot to ask again.

Yeah... That is cool.

Ha! I wish I had duplicates! I wish I had the budget for a lot of duplicates! This set is so dang huge, if I was sinking a lot of money into duplicates and upgrades right now I'd be in trouble with the misses. One of the few things I'd count as an absolute duplicate is a P-98 that I wouldn't want to give up because my two P-98s are sequential serial numbers.

Yeah... I'm not sure what's up with that. I think there might just be slightly less awareness of the $10 and the $20 and I think people might just not be in a rush on those since they're so new. Hard to say. 5 months ago the first dollar notes could go up for auction at these prices in auctions and no one would bid or I'd just win them unopposed. Lately a few people have emerged that are showing some strong, consistent interest in the 1st dollar notes and there are more and more battles over some of them it seems. I also just absolutely got thumped on a P-77 I wanted to complete my "Millions" set in the 3rd dollars series. I don't know what's triggered it but in the last 3 months it just seems like I've picked up a lot of competition. I miss the days when I picked up a P-5 variety in 67 EPQ (top pop) for $7.50 because no one fought me for it. Edited to Add: That Canadian Seller did have a $20 note... but it was only a 66 EPQ. I have plenty of 66 EPQs in my set - especially in the 2nd and 3rd dollars - and I think it's a solid grade, but I've been trying to get 67s where I can lately and, with that note being so new, I just feel like I'd rather wait than pay what felt like a premium price for a 66 EPQ.

Yeah... I went for that 67 EPQ on the 10 in part because I was expecting sharper competition on that 68 EPQ. You got away with that for cheaper than my 67. I had thought about bidding on that 68 when I saw it going so low but I decided against it since there are some notes ending today that I wanted to go for instead. I was hoping to go for a P-3 $10 note ending today but the bidding has gotten too steep. I think I'll wait for now.

Yeah... and I think there is a 68 for that one coming up in a day or so. I thought about going for that 68, but my other 2 so far are 67s, I'm pretty happy with 67s but I am trying to mostly make 67s happen just so they'll be "Superb Gem." If they ever make a competitive set for these you may force me to upgrade to 68 EPQ just because I don't want to take the #2 spot in Zimbabwe . Joking... Maybe... One of these days I'm probably going to be forced do go back and upgrade some of my 4th dollar notes and some of my higher denom 3rd dollars just to clear out some 65 EPQ notes and one 64 EPQ that are dragging the rest down.

Yeah.... That shocked me. I audibly gasped and my wife asked what was wrong. 😆 Again, I'm good with my 67 EPQ. I actually won the auction for that 67 EPQ $10 note at 4:30 AM - bidding unopposed for $28.99 (about $37 all in after shipping and taxes).

Yeah. I agree. I've gotten very careful lately about not bidding until the end. Part of this is the result of some activity with one seller that I think might have been shill bidding, but, in general, I feel no need to give people more time to run me up or think about increasing their bids. Much better to decide going in what the absolute maximum you could be happy paying is and put that in with a minute to go.

Well, 1.5 days left and it's up to $407. Wow.

I have no idea. Interestingly, it seems like there's a resurgence in interest in these notes going on right now. I'm rather surprised by how aggressive the bidding has gotten on that note so quickly. The last few auctions I've been in for 1st dollar notes and a P-77 I lost have all been getting harder and getting more interest lately it feels like. I'm wondering if this new series is reviving interest or if something else is going on. $300 seems like it'll be easy. I'm thinking we might see $400-500 at this rate. I guess we'll see. Again, I'm happy to have my 67 EPQ that I scored for about $35. There are some other things I'm going to go for while some others beat each other up over that.

To be honest, I'm glad the old one is back.

Is the length really unlimited on the signature set side? I thought the 5000 character limit was set throughout. I tend to have the same thing in the competitive set and the signature set and treat the competitive sets as subsets of the signature set, which is what I see as the "true" set / project as I define it. Your name for the set, "The REAL DEAL," suggests that you see yours similarly. It's interesting in that you go into a lot of the finer details and security features with your descriptions. Doing that, I could easily see you getting up against the 5K limit. I don't go into that level of detail usually and stick with the broader design details of the note usually because 1) I assume it will be harder to get someone who is only casually interested in the series to read that much, 2) I don't like struggling with the character limit, and 3) with a lot of the finer, smaller details I feel like it can be hard to even see some of those things in the images we can put on the registry. This is also one of the reasons I don't discuss the watermarks and the changes in the watermarks on the Zimbabwe notes much because you can't really see the watermarks in the non-backlit images I have up. Since the thing that really draws me in with the Zimbabwe notes is the hyperinflation and the "story" of it / the history, If I go on at length it's more likely to be about the historical context / what was happening at the time that note was issued and what caused the hyperinflation - especially with the 1st dollar series. So are you only adding notes to your signature set as you get descriptions ready? Because you have 140 slots, but hardly any notes in it (11) when I know you have like 50-60 Ukrainian notes in your competitive sets.

I don't know that I would have felt that way until recently, but the P-7, P-9 and P-5 variety I wanted popped up so close to each other, then the P-11a, and then a P-12a pops up not too long after I talk about that being the last 2nd series note I needed and I do start to wonder. The one thing that keeps me from being paranoid is I keep seeing P-6 notes come up and I've long since now stopped caring about those after getting a 68 EPQ. Yeah, normally I'd never openly admit that I want to bid on something in particular, but if you look at the open slot in my signature set and my bidding habits of late it's an open secret that I'd want the thing anyway and I think you can almost count the number of truly active regulars here on 2 hands - 100% agreed. I'd love to see that change though.

Yeah. It's usually not too hard to get 68's for a lot of things for not much more than the cost of grading. Of course, my Zimbabwe set leans on a lot of bulk-graded 66 EPQs that I got at bargain prices, but I'm usually pretty happy to have a 66 EPQ. I'll take a 67 EPQ or 68 EPQ if I can get it for a reasonable price. The other thing I find is that, once I have a 66 or a 67 - especially with a 67 - it's hard to convince myself to drop money on an "upgrade," even when one pops up at a good price. I am giving some thought to going back and swapping out some of the few 65 EPQs I have later on though. Side note but I think there is a 68 EPQ for that note up for sale right now if you're willing to drop about $50-60 for it. There's a 68 EPQ of the new $10 notes that I think I'm going to go after. I got handed my head on an auction for a P-77 I wanted yesterday so maybe I'll win this new note instead.

Wow. Yup. I had to go looking when I saw that. I'd seen a 69 but not that 70. That's intense. Puts my 67 EPQ to shame I guess but... I'm okay with a 67. I think I'm going to have to watch that one just to see how much it sells for though. I think there was a 70 EPQ for the 100 Trillion note that someone actually agreed to pay about $12,350 for. I.... struggle to comprehend that price for a condition rarity of a note that is common as sand on the beach. The 69s and 70s are impressive when they show up and I've seen 70s appear for several pick#s in the series at this point. If anyone could ever pull together a set of them one day that would be crazy impressive and they'd have mad-props from me, but I don't think that will be me - not any time soon. Probably not this decade. I think if I do start trying to upgrade any of my existing notes any time soon my wife is liable to get rather cranky with me. I am rather pleased / proud of the set I've put together on the whole though with a fair number of 68 EPQs now and one solitary 69 EPQ. This set is just so dang big that just trying to complete it in reasonably good grades just gets hard. I think there might be a bit of a lag / time delay before things make it to the pop report and this seller keeps submitting new notes for grading.

Ah, yes. I know, but I wish what's left of my rapidly receding hairline did. Thanks! It feels like a big win - incidentally, I think it's the only P-23e currently graded and PMG had to add it in for me this morning so I could add it to my set. No. Unlike most other special labels, you can get it for free and don't have to pay a $5 fee to get it, but you still have to explicitly request it on the form and I've seen plenty with and without it. The label gets discontinued in about 5 months on 12/31/2020. I didn't request it because I'm not the one that had it graded, but the dealer I bought it from would have had to have done so. I have notes in new holders with and without the "15 Years" from this same seller. I'm not sure there's any rhyme or reason to what they had that put on and what they didn't. Seems awfully random to me. If you go into the pop report on the PMGnotes.com site you can choose to have it display the countries by "Most Graded." and it shows how many notes are graded for each country below the name of the country. From there, it's just counting (or multiplying 4 x 5) to figure out that Zimbabwe comes in at #20. It's really shocking that roughly half of everything PMG has graded is Chinese. Definitely not something I'm ruling out - though it would be nice if the country could mount something of a recovery before I do. The poverty rate is still about 90% and that just seems like it would be a sad thing to witness firsthand - all of it so unnecessary and avoidable. It is funny to think about in that, as much as I find these notes and this bit of economic history interesting, I doubt these notes inspire warm, fuzzy feelings in Zimbabwe and I doubt they get much joy from the idea of these dang foreigners collecting as novelties these things that are so symbolic and representative of such a miserable period for their country - which is largely still ongoing. Every time they come out with a new note they start hitting ebay in droves to a lot of fanfare and hype. It's slightly insane in some ways.

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.

Looking at the charts again, I'm probably just whining without good reason. They're not doing so hot this week - even though I'd expect them to be with the more recent moves up in gold and silver - but since I started buying in March I'm up about 30-35%, which is very respectable.

And yet, my shares of gold mining companies aren't really moving all that much - they're even down a little so far today. I'm really not sure what to make of it.

eBay is full of absurd listings though. It's good for entertainment though. Recently, just for a laugh, I put in a "Best Offer" on a pair of items that has been listed at $79 each for years now. I offered $24 each because I honestly don't think they'd get much more than that for them if they decided to put them in auction. The response was crickets. I may come back in another month or two and offer more like $35 each on them, just because I'd love to fill those holes in my set.

I agree that I haven't seen major problems with crooked notes in the newer holders / more recently graded notes with cert numbers starting with "80XXXXX-". It's nice to see.

I totally understand that, though the weekends are often the time when I find time to make noise. Thanks for getting it all taken care of.

I find it fairly hilarious that this, of all reasons, is why you have Zimbabwe notes. "Well, I'd rather have this than pay for shipping." Yeah. Typical for any place that deals in bullion - they all talk out of both sides of their mouths at every opportunity. They don't really care why or what convinces you to buy - as long as you decide to BUY NOW!!

When a note is graded before they have a pick number for it they write "Pick unlisted" on the label of the holder and it's listed as "VENUNL$$$$$" - "Venezuela Unlisted (Denomination)." My 2019 Zimbabwe notes are "ZIMUNL2a" and "ZIMUNL5a."