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Revenant

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Journal Entries posted by Revenant

  1. Revenant
    This just came in the mail today and I just thought it was a little funny - thought I'd share.
    The vast majority of the coins and notes I buy are from sellers / dealers in the United States. I very rarely buy from international sellers, it's not often I get a package with a customs declaration form, and this one in particular is a first for me - Croatia. The seller is located in the capital city Zagreb, which I did not know was the capital until I looked it up.
    I ordered the note about 2 weeks ago on March 1st and the delivery estimate was between March 11th (which seemed optimistic honestly) and March 19th, so their guess wasn't bad. They were definitely in the range.
    The note in question was a Zimbabwean P-2c 5 dollar note from 1983. Another very nice addition to my 1st dollar set.

  2. Revenant
    Mike and I have made quite a joke in the past of the people buying 70 EPQ Zimbabwe notes on eBay for hundreds of dollars but I got another example recently.
    Last year my wife gifted me a 68 EPQ 20 Trillion note that was a great step up from the 65 EPQ I'd had before. I think she paid about $110 for it after shipping and taxes. I was looking on eBay recently and the same note in the same grade is now available for about $50-55, in part because the same seller got more of them in that grade.
    It's quite an interesting reminder of what the risks can be when the only thing that makes a note even remotely rare or scarce is the number on the label. And it's the main reason I never really liked paying top-dollar for the highest grades when building my Zimbabwe set. I wanted a complete set of notes in really good / solid grades - usually gem uncirc grades in the 66 EPQ + range, which, in the holders especially are almost indistinguishable from 67 EPQ, 68 EPQ or 69 EPQ examples. Sure, I'm sure there are differences, but they're so subtle that I don't think most people would notice or care. Building the set this way let me do what I wanted at a budget level I was okay with, going on the assumption that I'd probably never be able to fully recover my costs if I ever had to sell. I approach building that set on the idea of being happy / okay with it if I took a total loss on it and never saw any of that money / value ever again, so I didn't have to worry or stress about future value or resale - easier to do when many of the notes I got to fill out the 2nd and 3rd dollar sets I spent $8-12 a piece getting, already graded.
    Possibly more on this later, but that set, which is now a Registry award winner, only cost about $2,000-2,500 to build. Proving that this isn't always about who has the most money to throw at the problem.
    I sometimes wonder if someone that recently came into the Zimbabwe notes registry in a big way is ever going to regret the large amount of money they dumped into their sets to get really high grades on everything in a short period of time. Maybe they have the cash and they can spend at that level and have similar feelings to mine with regard to not having to worry about ever getting that money back out of it. Personally, that would have made me cringe, based on what I can guess and infer about some of the prices they must have been paying.
    Short of winning the lottery I don't think my Zimbabwe sets are likely to ever dominate the #1 rankings again just because - short of money just becoming no object - I'm unlikely to ever spend thousands of dollars to win a slap-fight over labels and condition rarities. Still, with what it has achieved and what I still have planned, its still going to be one of the bigger and more complete Zimbabwe currency collections I've ever seen, and it's going to get a more fully realized and flushed out coin arm in the NGC Registry later this year - the coins are getting ready to be submitted. But more on that in an NGC journal later. I'm also still not completely closed to some limited upgrading when it can be done at a reasonable price point - I have some 64 EPQ and 65 EPQ hole fillers that I wouldn't mind upgrading to 67 EPQs if this can be done for more in the range of $25-35 / note.
  3. Revenant

    Getting Better Organized Now Maybe

    By Revenant,


    Note Storage
    My collection of graded notes exploded in the last couple of years as I've worked on building the Zimbabwe collection. My storage and organization has lagged far behind with the notes just in large plastic sleeve that hold up to 8-10 notes and having those stacked up.
    It actually made things a bit of a nightmare for me when trying to look through and enjoy the notes because they were just hard to manage like this.
    My wife and I exchanged Valentine's presents early this weekend and she gave me some graded note storage boxes that look like old books on the outside.


    They are different colors (I think they're available in 4 colors) but they also have a small label pocket for saying what's in each one.

    She got me 2 to start out but I'm going to get to add a 3rd in a couple of days and take advantage of 5% eBay bucks at the same time.
    I'd initially been linked to these on eBay by another reddit user when I saw a post by that user showing one. I've had the impression that my wife might have / might be getting me some of these. This paradoxically in the short term made my organizational practices even worse - I lost all interest in fighting my old system to try to get things in order and sort in new notes when I knew these might be coming in a week or two. And, they would have been coming, because if she hadn't bought them for me they probably would have been the next thing I bought myself.
    I got really excited when I saw these in that reddit post and saw that the price was reasonable ($20/box). I've been wanting something like this f or a while and prefer something like this to albums and pages.
    I clearly haven't finished putting all my notes in them yet but I can already tell they're  going to make life so much easier when dealing with my notes.
  4. Revenant
    I suppose I hinted at this in my previous post by posting pictures of both of them but I didn't bring this up because I didn't close / seal the deal on the 2nd one until this morning.
    Over the weekend, about a week after I lost the auction for that P-100 note the seller offered me a 2nd chance offer on it at my max bid price - which happened to be the initial / starting bid price. This offer, combined with some other things that happened towards the end of those auctions, increases my suspicion that some shill bidding occurred. I went ahead and accepted the offer, because I did want the note and it was a good price for the grade in my opinion (which is the only one that matters in this case). While I do suspect shilling, even if I'm right, it only cost me $2-5 on $150 in purchases so I decided I'm just going to choose to ignore it for the most part.

    In the course of dealing with that I noticed that the seller had listed some P-99 notes for auction as well. The first one was ending today in the early morning so I decided to go for it. Unlike the auctions from a couple of weeks ago I waited and big until close to the end. Curiously, I bid and won unopposed this time... A lesson for the future with this seller, I guess - assuming I choose to give him any more business after this.

    While I suspect shenanigans, I think I got good prices, and picked up Superb Gem graded notes for less than it would have cost me to buy raw and get them graded myself. So I'm going to call it a win.
    I have to laugh at myself just a little 1) for going ahead and getting the P-100 just a week after I "let it go," and 2) because, for a while now, I've been thinking that when I finally got one of the bond notes I would probably get both at the same time or very close together. With a 2 note set, it just feels wrong to only get one / it's too tempting to not get both. The appeal of having the pair - especially as a matched set in grade - is just too strong.
  5. 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.
     
  6. Revenant

    Grades on the Checks!

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Traveller's Checks
    My grades came back for the 12 Traveler’s Cheques (2 sets of 6) and the 3 Hole-filling 2nd Dollar Bearer Cheques… and I am thrilled!!!! They did significantly better than I’d been allowing myself to hope for. I’d been thinking I’d be extremely happy if Fenntucky Mike was right, and they all came back with grades in the 61-63 range. I was mentally bracing to get a bunch in the AU50-55 range. Instead, I got the following.

    I’m not a note grader. I don’t at all know how to grade these and don’t claim to know. This was a shot in the dark for me with the best examples I could find at a reasonable-feeling price. This is one of the reasons I normally would not want to self-submit notes because I just don’t know what makes a promising bet and what could be a deal-breaker. So, I was just trying to cross my fingers and come in with what I hoped were reasonable expectations and this blew me away.
    11 out of 12 got the EPQ designation and 9 out of 12 came back at 63 or above.
    A 66 EPQ a P-17 and a P-19 has me over the moon and a 65 EPQ for P-20, combined with the P-15 in 65 EPQ is enough to make a very strong set of these checks, with a 63 EPQ and 64 EPQ to round out the set. It is a tiny bit of a bummer that both P-15s came back at 64 EPQ, below the 65 EPQ on the one I have, so on paper that arguably was a waste, but those are still very solid grades that just barely missed the other and I wanted P-15s as my -001 on the invoices.
    I split the traveler’s checks into 2 invoices so I’d have two groups of -001 to -006 – maybe two competitive sets with all the same invoice number. Because all the higher grades didn’t land on one submission and because the P-15s didn’t beat the other, if I want to make the best competitive set I can I’d have to mix and match, which would defeat the purpose of paying the $10 to split the two invoices and submit the P-15s. I’ll decide later how I want to deal with that – go for style or go for the strongest possible group of 6.
    I’m thinking I may have to contact the seller and tell him how this turned out and thank him. I’m definitely feeling good at this point for paying the extra cash to have him pick and pull the nicest examples he had.
    On the bearer checks, the 64 EPQ on the P-46b is slightly disappointing, but the 67 EPQ top pop on the P-40 was great, and this gives me a complete graded set for the 2nd dollar, which is what I wanted out of that. I'll be in no rush to upgrade or try for an upgrade on that 64 I think.
    The "Stamp Cancelled" comment is interesting in that it IS in the comments on the back but it seems to be new. My older P-15 - which is still in a new gen holder - doesn't have it.
     




  7. Revenant
    The hyperinflation that ripped through Zimbabwe in the first decade of this century / millennium was an economic and societal catastrophe. The currency was officially and fully demonetized in 2015 but the nation of Zimbabwe is continuing to try to dig its way out of the devastation caused by the hyperinflation and other disastrous government policies and programs.
    It is somewhat ironic, and I’m sure more than a little chagrin inducing for the people of that country, to think that the 100 Trillion dollar note and some of the others in that series have become such a popular novelty item and that the 100 Trillion notes are now worth $100-350 to American collectors.
    However, I’ve recently come across / learned about something that seemingly adds quite a bit of insult to this injury.
    Since the genuine notes have become so popular and expensive, not everyone wants to pay that much for them. And, the joys of capitalism being what they are, someone seems to have stepped in to fill that need / void.
    Some person or company in China has been mass producing these gold colored copies of the 100 Trillion dollar note. They’re plastic and covered in a gold-colored foil - there is no real gold content. They do not have serial numbers. They are not and never were real notes and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has nothing to do with them. They’re on eBay going for $8-10 for lots of 10 of them - so super cheap.
    I see the gold coloring as mixed blessing. Since they’re gold in color and shiny, where the true 100 Trillion note is mostly blue, no one is ever going to make the mistake of thinking that these are the original 100 Trillion note. There's also a silver version out there that I think does a better job of replicating the look of the original notes but it's basically the same as the gold version in terms of what it is and where it comes from. I think some of the sellers on eBay don’t do a good enough job of emphasizing that these things are from China and not any kind of official issue and that Zimbabwe / the government thereof wasn’t involved in making them, but what can you do there?
    On the other hand, because the coloring is all wrong, having one of these in hand doesn’t give you a feel for what the original looks like or feels like.
    I also find the gold color tacky and gawdy to the extreme. There’s just something so peculiar about taking something that became famous for being part of the last gasp of a dying currency, something that is famous for being 100 Trillion Dollars and, yet, somehow, still being too worthless to buy a loaf of bread and making it gold-colored. It’s like the person that made these just fundamentally failed to understand this event and what these things were and what they mean. These things are not a sign of or indicative of affluence or prosperity or opulence, as you would expect with something made golden. They’re associated with a terrible chapter of that nation’s history - a period of deprivation, scarcity, fear, want, hardship and loss.
    I can’t imagine what a native of the country who lived through that decade would think of these things and I don’t know if they’d laugh or cry.

  8. Revenant

    How does a Tyrant lose power?

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Banknotes
    I was not aware of this world event or this tweet at the time (I was busy getting started in a new job at this point in 2017), but three years ago the following tweet was made:
     

    On Nov 19, 2017 Mugabe was told to resign by the 20th or be removed. When he didn't do it they filed for impeachment on the 21st and he resigned that same day.
    I also wasn't aware of this when I named my set "Gradually, then suddenly," when I re-made and re-started it in 2019. But, when I found it online about a week ago, I couldn't help but save it and want to talk about it. It was just a little too perfect given what I named my Zimbabwe set (and I really do swear that I didn't know about this at the time. I learned about the quote when watching Prozac Nation and it stuck with me from there. It is on my bucket list to read "The Sun Also Rises" I guess).
    In somewhat unrelated news I won the following two notes last week:


    I was pretty thrilled to get the P-30 without much fight. Another P-30 in 68 EPQ sold in late August with a 67 EPQ selling the week after that and I didn't bid on or win either because I just couldn't justify spending that much at the time (my budget wasn't big enough) and I decided the P-15 and some other notes I bought were more important to me / the set. This time I passed on a P-15 (in 67 EPQ this time) to get this P-30. Someone else did bid on and take that P-15 in 67 EPQ for $50 + shipping. It probably wasn't a bad / unreasonable price to get that check in such a high grade but I just couldn't convince myself it was worth that. That, and, having the P-15 that I have, I think the P-30 was now the right choice to move the bigger set forward.
    Having won that, I put in a bid on the 2020 $20 and FINALLY won one at a price I was happy with. I was so sure I'd get one a few weeks back and I lost it at the last minute when it was going for $34+. Since I was able to combine shipping on this won with the P-30 the incremental cost to me was only $30. Finally, a good note and grade at a price I was more happy with. My 2019-2020 set may ultimately go through a complete / near complete upgrade cycle just for the joy of giving Mike a run for his money but for now I'm really happy to have a complete set. Although, having everything else in 67 now, I really regret snapping up that $5 bond note in 66 EPQ. It was / is a solid enough grade but now it just looks like the slouch / loser of the set.
    These were shipped / the shipping label was created today. I'm going to cross my fingers that they get here in less than 3 weeks and I can add them to my set before the 4th of December. It would just be really nice to have them in place before the cut-off.
  9. Revenant

    How much more could you want?!?

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Notes
    I was talking to my wife tonight about the fact that, having built a nearly complete pick set from P-1 to P-104, I'm probably going to take a break soon and slow down a lot - move on to other projects for a while.
    She looks at me and says, "yeah, but how much more could you want at this point?!?"
    "Well I could work on building out a set of 2003 traveler's checks, get more into replacement notes, specimen notes, fantasy notes... I could branch out into the fuel ration coupons..."
    She's looking at me in horror, like I've lost my dang mind. "Okay. Nevermind."
    "See. You really shouldn't ask me these questions." 😆
     
  10. 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.
  11. Revenant

    I guess there's something about GREEN.

    By Revenant,


    Note Storage
    So those boxes my wife got me come in 4 colors - black, blue, red and green. She got me black and blue. I ordered myself a red which is coming soon.
    However - it would seem that getting green just isn't so easy! Almost every seller I found is sold out of Green.
    The only seller I found with them was 1] changing more than anyone else was for the boxes (about $30 where most were charging $20-25 after shipping) and 2] charging a premium for Green (Red was about $29, blue was about $30 and green was a little over $31).
    So what's up with green?
    The first thing that springs to mind is that it is essentially PMG's chosen color and that might make it preferred by some but I also know PMG isn't the only grader. I see other companies used in my Facebook and Redit groups - I just personally have never gotten anything other than PMG for graded notes.
    It's also the main/ dominant color of money and "the greenback," if you are an American or collect US notes.
    I'd love to have all four colors represented on my shelf because I'm a weird, collecting freak - maybe just a couple of steps shy of being a hoarder - but I'm just not willing to pay 60% more for a different color. 🤷‍♂️
     
  12. Revenant

    I think I know where you bought those...

    By Revenant,


    Venezuelan Bolivares Soberanos
    A couple of weeks ago I was watching several 67 EPQ graded notes listed by Noteshobby for the Venezuela Bolivares Soberanos set. I was thinking I might try to buy them in December if they were still available. It would have been a good way to make quick progress on that set for a good price.
    Then one day they all sold along with several Zimbabwe notes I was watching.
    Yesterday, a new set of Soberano notes showed up with those notes in 67 EPQ and the same person just made several new Zimbabwe sets.
    Okay... I see how it is. I wanted those but there's more out there! 
    I am / was planning to try to make the Soberano set happen next year just because its a short set of relatively inexpensive notes that'll be fun to build now that I have the Fuertes series complete. I've also started building the bones / frame of a new Signature set that I'll use to display and talk about the set the way I want since I'm thinking I'm not going to get exactly what I want in a competitive set
    New sets popping up that bump you out of #1 less than a week before the cut-off! The sniping is very real this year!
    Lol not that I'm entirely sure what we're fighting over at this level. PMG doesn't give certificates or display ribbons for Best in Category so I guess it's just pure bragging rights.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
     
  15. Revenant
    A currency dealer I shop with frequently just did a "fall sale" - putting all PCGS Currency graded banknotes on sale for 30%. This has me wondering if the PCGS graded notes haven't been selling since the shutdown and their values really have taken a hit, even on the lower ends of the market - including the market for modern banknotes.
  16. Revenant

    In under the wire: Got the P-77!

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Banknotes
    Back in early August a P-77 graded by PMG popped up and I got really excited. It would have completed the “Millions” set that PMG featured in an article last year and it would have put me only 1 note away from a complete 3rd dollar set.
    https://www.pmgnotes.com/news/article/7791/PMG-Registry-News/
    Unfortunately, the note went above $80 (after shipping and taxes) and I let it go. I just couldn’t convince myself to bid higher for it. Letting that go was a bitter pill - I wanted that thing.
    A couple of weeks ago, however, with the deadline for the registry awards looming another one popped up with a starting bid of $30. I won it for about $55 after shipping and taxes - a lot better than $75+.
    To my great shock and surprise, the note was delivered to my mailbox yesterday, on Thanksgiving day.

    (Side note: I frequently get confused at first glance with the one million P-77 and the ten million P-78 because they're both predominantly blue and they're only one zero away from each other. The P-78 is just darker blues on the whole. You really have to pay attention to the "ONE" and the "TEN.")
    (Second Side Note: If this note just had a 0 instead of a 1 or a 1 instead of a 0 it would be a Trinary Radar note. So close and yet... NOPE!)
    I know some people like to rag on anything that isn’t a 68 EPQ (), but this 67 EPQ is actually TOP POP for this note with a pop of 3 in grade and 10 total graded based on the current population report.
    So, with that, the “Millions" set is complete and the only note I lack for the 3rd dollar set is the P-72 - a note I never would have thought of or expected to be the last note outstanding when I started this. However, the P-72 is surprisingly hard to find / get in uncirc condition and PMG-graded examples tend to have asking prices in the $250-350 range. Even raw uncirc examples are usually asking $100-200 and you see heavily circulated rags that have prices of $20-$50 on them.
    People are asking that. I see no evidence that the sellers are getting that much / people are actually buying them at those prices.
    Still, it makes it difficult to get one. In some ways it makes it harder to swallow that price when I can find no evidence that anyone else is actually paying for that because it makes it feel more like the sellers are just trying to take advantage.
    Having finally scored the P-77, having this lone white whale out there is going to have me a little stumped and frustrated. That price feels really really  REALLY steep (especially given that I got my P-1d in 68 EPQ Star for $110 and got a 68 EPQ 20 Trillion also for $110 and we’re talking people asking $350 for a 65 EPQ), but it would complete the set. I just don't know if I'm willing to pay that though.
    3rd Dollars Complete:

    I'm very proud of how this set has progressed from the end of 2018 to the end of 2020.
    End of 2018, ~30%, 8/27 slots filled. (and, really, this is how we ended 2016 and it didn't change for 2 years)

    Today, Ending 2020, at 96% complete, 26/27 slots filled:

    Millions Set:

    As you might guess from the above shots of the complete 3rd dollar set, the Millions set didn't even exist really in 2016. It was a Billions and Trillions only set back then. I think I just had an empty place-holder set, and now it is complete.

    This also gives me a set that is complete from P-73 to P-104 and the P-72 is the only gap from P-47 to P-104… Somehow I need to find a way to attack that double gap at the P-45 and P-46.. and the P-40… One day. Most of those are another story of sellers wanting way above market rates for notes in grades that are less-than-stellar.
  17. Revenant
    I got this poster in the mail a while ago. It came in a poster tube on its own. I'm guessing it was a marketing thing and a "thank you for being a customer" type thing.
    I do like it though. I think I might have to get this framed one of these days to go with my note set.
    I like the fact that it includes the 1st dollars and the 1980s era coins. I wish it included the 4th dollars and the bond notes - but I guess nothing can be perfect. There's still just too much emphasis on the 3rd dollars (the "Trillions Series") and the 100 Trillion dollar note..

  18. Revenant

    More Bolivares and More Turtles

    By Revenant,


    Hyperinflation Notes and Sets
    Yesterday I was excitedly working on making new set and note descriptions - planning out the future presentation of the Venezuelan signature set. I thought I’d hit the “download” button and not the “open” button when I got my file from dropbox and I made a mistake in saving the file, which led to a fair bit of work and tinkering being lost.
    This morning I got a very frustrating call from my UK Sales manager that I didn’t like. It basically put me in a very non-productive, unmotivated mood and I was agitated over the loss of that work on the Venezuela set, so I decided to spend time today working on restoring my lost set work. Fortunately it didn’t take long to restore most of what I lost and then I moved on to writing some new stuff. And I’ve been more careful this time to save my work.
    I’m really excited to get some of these set up because I was able to order 5 new Soberanos notes in 67 EPQ for a total of $124 - so about $24.80 a note. Basically, the cost of the notes + grading, to say nothing of shipping 3 ways (to PMG, back, and to me). So I’m very happy with that and very excited to get those in and add them to the set. That will give me all of the 2018 issues except for VEN104 and 1 of the three 2019 issues. I’m not really seeing many / any of the 3 new 2021 notes for sale already graded by PMG. I’m sure those’ll start popping up soon enough.
    I’m getting moving on this later than I’d originally thought but I still want to and like the idea of mostly finishing a Venezuelan Hyperinflation set before the end of 2021. I’m only going to need about 6 more notes to make that happen.
    My wife has this group of friends she talks to on Facebook Messenger that’s a group of moms with kids all around the same age as Sam. And… I guess she was telling them about my currency collecting and brought up my turtle theme set and one of them asked if I had a Kuwaiti 1/2 dinar note… and I was like, “No… why?” Apparently it has a sea turtle on it.


    It really is amazing, the unexpected ways that information comes to you sometimes.
    So I’ve added a slot to my Turtle set to remind me to go after that later, right along with a 20 Ringgit note from Malaysia.

    Maybe one of these days that set will look a little more like something / a little more impressive.
    Edited to add: After boxing them up the other day, the 15 bearer and traveller's checks were picked up today and are now officially on their way! So... I guess I'll know how they did in like late June or July.
  19. Revenant

    My Fancy Fantasy Gag Gifts Arrived.

    By Revenant,


    Fantasy Notes
    I got my gold-foil Zimbabwe 100 Trillion notes in the mail today. I popped them in some top-loaders and they're ready to go in some stockings. My wife likes them, thinks they're neat and thinks they'll be fun to give as gag gifts too.
    They're stiffer than I had been expecting. The top loaders might not have been necessary but I like having the "notes" in them for presentation and handling.
    I'll be keeping one for myself / my collection. Ben immediately claimed one for himself. Sam took a shine to them and then proceeded to immediately break a top loader by bending and contorting it - the child is both strong and destructive for a 22 month old!
    Still working my way through a coin submission with a comedy of errors - realizing my printer doesn't have ink, realizing after 2 days that my pages didn't print because the printer then ran out of paper and I got distracted by kids and work again. Hopefully I'll get my act together in the next couple of days.

  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

    My Wife and This Freakin' Note.

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Banknotes
    So today is my bday and my wife gave me my birthday gift last night.

    This journal is going to come in two parts:
    1) Why it is freaking hilarious and kind of perfect that she got me this.
    2) Why I'm actually happy with it this time.
    So in the long ago days of January 2019 my wife was pregnant with our 2nd child and looking for a way to surprise me with something I'd love for our anniversary. It was a stressful time for us. She was in a high risk pregnancy. There was a very real risk that she'd die and that this could be the 4th and final anniversary together. So she goes on a website and sees my wishlist and buys me a 20T note. Thing is... I didn't have a 20T note on my list. I had a 20 BILLION note on my list, but who can blame her with all fhe freakin zeros, right? That note was also ungraded and it just didn't do anything for me with my already graded 65 EPQ. I felt bad at the time because she tried so hard and she was so pleased with herself but I couldn't hide my confusion when I got it. But we laughed it off, we got to return it, I bought a (much cheaper) graded 67 EPQ 20 Billion note for my set and even one or two other notes with the difference. Her getting me that note reignited my interest in this set after it had lain dormant for years after I was laid off in 2016 and that present became the launching point for what has been a 1.5 year obsession with building out this set. I've said before that building this set was a big part of how I dealt with the stress and anxiety of Sam's birth...
    And here it is again. She didn't even remember it / that it was the same note. That fact was lost in the fog of the craziness of that. It was just too funny.
    So here's why I'm happy with it this time (in addition to it just being hilarious).
    1) This note actually was on my wishlist because that old 65 EPQ was kind of an under-performer in my 3rd dollar set and I'd been thinking that the 20 Trillion would be a priority for upgrade if I ever started upgrading. This 3-point move up is pretty fantastic for what is one of the more important notes in the 3rd dollar series. Since it was a present and since I don't see myself wanting to drop big cash for a 69 EPQ I see this one staying in the set long term now.
    2) This note is in a new-gen holder and doesn't have the darker tinted plastic that the old one is in. The new note, while it isn't a "low serial number," is much lower than the old one (184955 vs 298832). The low serial (and the fact that it is a 12 year old note in a new holder in pristine condition) has me thinking that this note spent the last decade in an unbroken bundle / brick and someone must have broken a brick to cherry-pick for some gradable examples.

  22. Revenant
    Over the weekend I just started seeing these pop up for sale in eBay auctions and new sales / offerings popping up that offer these as part of a 3 note set with the 2 2019 issues, so I'm guessing these are freshly released and they're just now making it out to the dealers. So I guess I might get to see all the designs that were supposed to be released as part of the bond note series afterall. I was really expecting them to tack an extra 0 onto these if they released them and have $100 and $200 notes instead of $10 (and maybe, later, $20) notes. Even with the official exchange rate the government is trying to peg these at (25:1 with the US dollar) these new notes are worth less than half a US dollar - not much. If you use some of the exchange rates people have been using, these are worth less than a US nickel. They are pretty though, and in some ways this feels like another attempt to make a call back to the 1st dollar series. The Original $10 notes, the P-3, issued starting in 1980, was primarily red, like these notes.

    On another note, I got a P-99 $2 bond note - an actual 2016 Bond note and not a new 2019 banknote - last week. Last night I won an auction for a P-100 $5 bond note, so, once that comes in I'll have both the bond notes for real this time, and both the 2019 issues, and I'll just need to get this new 2020 note (and anything else they come up with this year, like a $20 note if they release it) to stay current on the new issues.
    Other than trying to keep up with the new issues and the new developments I'm still emphasizing going back and building up my 1st dollar set with new varieties as I can get them.
  23. Revenant

    New 2020 $20 too!

    By Revenant,

    I did a bit of reading last night and found out that the new $20 notes were announced at the same time as the $10 notes, but, where the $10 notes went into circulation in late May, the $20 notes weren't supposed to go into circulation until June. This time delay is probably why the $10 notes are starting to hit eBay but the $20s aren't - yet. I figure, assuming they aren't delayed, we'll see the $20s for sale to US collectors by early July.

    I said in my post about the new $10 notes that there seemed to be some clear attempts to call back to the original $10 notes from 1980 but it's even more clear with these new 20s
    While the design is clearly different, the color choices are very similar with greens, blues, and teals / aqua. Then you get to the art on the back. Both notes have an elephant - or the front half of an elephant - and Victoria Falls. Yes, they've clearly updated the art, but the inspiration drawn from the older note is very clear.

     
  24. Revenant

    New Set for the Bond Notes and New Notes!!

    By Revenant,


    2019 Series Zimbabwe Dollars
    This probably has made me way way happier than it should, but I am super stoked about this:

    My new 2020 $10 note should be arriving in the mail early next week and I really can't wait to get it now! This is making me want the $20 super bad - but I'm probably going to have to wait on that because I'm working on other things and if I spend too much this month my wife may injure me.
  25. Revenant

    Okay.... So I may be walking back some of those ideas...

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Traveller's Checks
    So, I knew going into this and in making my other post that the old Travellers checks are pretty out there and common and available...


    As long as you don't insist on them being uncanceled / unused... (Geeeze! That is a heck of a lot of money!)

    But I'm finding that the Cargill Checks (P 13-14 and P 24-27), may just only be available much more rarely and at prices I am just 100% not willing to pay for them, short of me winning the Mega Millions.

    However, the more I look at them the more excited I get about the idea of buying and collecting some of the old fuel ration coupons from ~2005. And if PMG is willing to grade them I could see them either being included in my current "Gradually, Then Suddenly," and / or becoming the focus of a new Signature Set / Collection. These are very interesting to me as much as anything because you have the Reserve Bank issuing ration coupons and not the government or some other part of the executive branch. So I feel like that makes these very much adjacent to the Bearer Checks and Agro Checks as collectables.