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Revenant

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Journal Entries posted by Revenant

  1. Revenant

    Silver and Gold Foil Fantasies

    By Revenant,


    Fantasy Notes
    I mentioned a few months back that I got some of the gold foil replicas of the 100 Trillion note. I’d been thinking at that time that getting some of the silver foils could be fun but that got set aside for a while and I kinda forgot about it.
    I was on reddit recently and a guy told me that I’d inspired him to get two of the 100 Trillion notes, but, when he told me that he only spent a few dollars on it I told him what he’d probably really bought was a couple of the silver foil replicas - which was exactly what he’d done. He felt a bit silly for that but said he might then go ahead and try to get one of the real ones soon-ish.
    It’s interesting to inspire someone to start collecting something that you collect, and I wish him well with it, but this got me thinking about the silver foils again and about a month ago I ordered a group.
    These cost me a bit more than the gold ones - I paid $7 for 20 gold ones and paid about $11 for 10 silver ones… Go figure. The silver ones were more expensive than the golds.
    It’s an interesting group to look at - and not especially easy to image.

    I’ve long viewed the gold ones as harmless because they’re just obviously not right, but I’ve also long considered the silver ones more dangerous because they look a lot more like shiny versions of the real thing. If you’re not paying too close of attention you might see the silver / white and blue and think someone is selling you one of the genuine notes like that guy on reddit did. But his experience just confirmed for me that these are just a little more dangerous. Fortunately, I don’t see them as too much of a problem as they are still cheap, and I don’t see many people crying over wasting a couple of bucks.
    The silver foil ones came with this silly little CoA that I just want to laugh at. I’m not at all convinced that these are plated with genuine silver. I’m not at all convinced that the production of these was limited in any way, much less to 1000. There might have been 1000 in that run… with was probably run number 50 or something. The fact that the CoA is made of the same shiny material as the notes just makes it look so silly and over-the top.
  2. Revenant

    The new checks are in...

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Traveller's Checks
    The seller was on the ball about getting these mailed out and they look pretty good for things that were supposed to be used once and thrown away nearly 20 years ago:
    I'm on the fence at the moment about whether I want to 1) Submit the P-15s or not since I have one of these graded already and 2) Do I want to submit both of each or pick one and go with it / hope for the best. 
    There's a part of me that says "Gradually, Then Suddenly," only needs one each of these and that I could use some of that grading credit to grade fuel coupons and such instead. There's another part of me that finds these interesting with the different dates and stamps and different banks / branches canceling them and thinks that a deeper dive into that could even be fodder for a signature set of its own. For instance, most of these are canceled in 2003, with some in 2004, but one of these P-16s showed that it was canceled in 2005 - what's the story there? And then there's just the other little things about these - how some where stamped on the front versus the back and some were stamped upside down or how some are dated in pencil  and just all the little quirks that these things acquire from having been canceled.
    Mike had indicated that he was interested in playing a little guess-the-grade and so below are front and back scans of all 12 checks, starting with the P-15s.
    There's a P-19 stamped on 10/18, like that graded P-18 I saw a while back. Dang. Just not quite hitting it with that date.
























  3. Revenant

    Scheduled for Grading!

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Traveller's Checks
    My notes are now Scheduled for Grading. I is excite.  That is all.  


    I love the "Emergency Issue" note on the label for many / most of these issues. They're such a bizarre product a bizarre moment in the history of a nation.

    I'm going to break these out into a special set of emergency issues (P-13 to P-32, or what I have of those) and the gas coupons (when and if I can get them graded), because I really want to put a spotlight on these things, apart from the larger whole of my "Gradually, Then Suddenly" set.
    https://notes.www.collectors-society.com/registry/notes/ViewPersonalCollection.aspx?UserCollectionID=1650&Tab=list
    Now that I'm mostly done with the writing work of building out the Venezuela set and i just need to buy notes as they become available at good prices, this set will probably be a major focus going into the 2nd half of the year.

    The gas ration coupons will probably be sent in for grading with a P-3d and P-3e once these clear QA/QC.
    I have quite a group of them now.
    I'm excited to get those coupons graded but I may be more excited to get a graded P-3 and close that last major gap in my 1st dollar set.
  4. 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.

  5. Revenant

    So, where does "Harare" come from?

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Notes
    So, where does "Harare" come from?
    My wife got me back on this question recently. I'd been looking for it a little before but could never find it. Looking for this led me to other answers too, as I said in my last post, but I've finally found AN answer. Maybe it's THE answer, or part of it.
    From what little I've been able to find in things like the Encyclopedia Britannica, there was a Shona chieftain in the late 19th Century called Neharawa. An area was named "Harawa" after him and then that got "corrupted" / changed to "Harare," which became the name for a predominantly black residential area that is now called "Mbare."
    I say "corrupted" in quotes because that was the wording used by a source I found on the evolution of "Harare." But clearly the population attaches no stigma or taint to the newer form, or the capitol wouldn't have been named that - they would have used the original "Harawa" in that event, I would think. As it is, I'm not sure why they didn't if what I've found is correct. Unless the intent was to use the name of that residential area and not necessarily to honor this chieftain. But there is an agreeable symmetry in renaming it from the name of the British PM at the time of conquest to a name honoring a Shona chieftain of the same era.
  6. Revenant

    Coming up on 1200.

    By Revenant,


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

    Wow. PMG is on it!

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Traveller's Checks
    My submission of checks arrived at PMG last week and I was expecting, based on their response late last week, that the notes probably wouldn't be in the system until the end of this week or early next week. I was shocked when I checked, mostly for a laugh, and saw that they were showing as "Received."

    This has me freaking out a bit. I'm realizing I might get an answer on these a lot faster than I'd thought. So, where I'd been chill about this and thinking I'd find out eventually and to not worry or think on it much, this paradoxically has me more keyed up.  
  8. Revenant

    The two hyperinflation signature sets.

    By Revenant,


    Hyperinflation Notes and Sets
    The Box with the Traveller's Checks is now sealed up and the postage is on it and it is now ready to go to PMG!
    This got me in the mood / excited to do a bit of tweaking: I added a note and link in the description for "Gradually, Then Suddenly" to my coin set on the NGC side. That set still only has a dime in it but I'm actively working on changing that now with a planned submission. I have coins! I just have to pick the coins to go in to NGC.

    I also went back and changed "ZIMUNL" to "ZIM101" through "ZIM104" for the newer notes, since they're now listed that way in the competitive sets.

    Better yet, I took the skeleton, the bones, of a Venezuelan Hyperinflation signature set that I'd made about 6 months ago and started filling that out with more than just Pick numbers.
    View Personal Collection (collectors-society.com)
    This has me getting very excited and happily building and writing and tweaking descriptions again and... this is getting me pumped to start trying to fill out some of those holes in the Soberanos set.  
    I thought I'd be here sooner, but it feels good to come back to it after a break and feel that energy and feel pumped again. It's time to build the Venezuelan set into a proper brother for the Zimbabwean set.
     
     
  9. 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.
  10. Revenant

    These were on inventory a while I think...

    By Revenant,


    Bolivares Fuertes
    I got the bulk lot of six Venezuelan notes in the mail on Thursday, and, after letting them wait / sit a while I opened them today.

    This is such a funny group of notes because, the Bolivar Fuertes series has 6 designs where 6 portraits and 6 animals & nature scenes are paired and this same sequence of 6 note designs is repeated twice in the series in the same order. This group of 6 that I bought together has an odd-ball 2 Bolivar notes and not the 500 Bolivar note that would match up with all the other notes in the sequence from 1,000 to 20,000, so you get all 6 portraits and designs, but in kind of a weird way - with one odd-ball denom from much earlier in the series than the rest of them.

    Unlike a lot of the Zimbabwe notes I've been snapping up lately these were NOT graded recently. Many of those new Zimbabwe notes in my set have 807XXXX- cert numbers and some even have the latest gen labels.
    These Venezuelan notes have cert numbers ranging from 17409XX- to 25066XX- and they're all in the older gen PMG holders. And you can tell because they're in that older polymer that has a lower transmittance and has a kind of blue tint to it.

    I'm really wondering if the seller got these things graded in bulk years ago when the notes where new (circa 2015-2017) and they finally got tired of having them. Maybe these "Medley lot" sales have just been their way of (finally) clearing / dumping old inventory.
    Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. I'm still thrilled to have gotten to fill out this set on the cheap, but it's still a little funny to think about what the "story" of these notes and this set might be.
    The other group of 5 notes I bought during the 4th of July sale arrived in the mail today. I won't open those until Monday or Tuesday probably.
  11. 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. 😊
  12. 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.
  13. Revenant

    Some slightly glorious and magical thinking here:

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Banknotes
    So I ran across this and couldn't help but laugh.
    First: They're showing a picture of a 67 EPQ graded note for the listing but they aren't selling PMG graded notes. They're selling a brick of uncirc notes. But don't worry! The picture is for reference only! It isn't meant to deceive the buyer in any way!
    Second: At this price, for 5,000 notes, that puts the lot at $2,000 per note. Even if they were selling PMG graded notes these notes would go for ~$200 if you were getting a good price and selling them individually.

    And there's 2 available!
    It always makes me laugh when I see these things . The simple fact that these things (the 20 trillion, the 50 trillion, and the 100 trillion) can be bought by the brick in uncirc condition is the best proof you should need that they probably shouldn't be going for $50-200 each!
    I like this series but I see this and immediately think, "Oh come on now!?!?"
    … and 607 watchers! Lots of popcorn I think. 

    This can be such an odd series to collect just because there are so many people out there that just don't seem to have gotten the memo that the hype these things had 10 years ago is gone and the supply glut is still real and the bottom fell out of this set.
    If I remember right I bought my P-91 about 5 years ago in 67 EPQ for $45 and I think that's one of the few notes in the series going for more now than it did 5 yeas ago.
  14. 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.

  15. 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. :)





  16. 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.
  17. Revenant
    In a note related to the topic of my last entry, the more time goes on the more I that opinions on what constitutes a "complete" set of Zimbabwe notes seems to vary widely.
    I was on reddit recently and a user said they had a complete set of the Zimbabwe notes. I was curious so I asked them what they were considering complete.
    It turned out that the poster had a full set of the 27-note 3rd dollar banknotes series - but nothing beyond that.
    For a long time there, BanknoteWorld - while they were publishing those books - as well as other merchants seemed to define "complete" to include the 2nd dollar bearer checks and agro checks in addition to the 3rd dollar bank notes - about 59 notes and checks.
    Another vender I deal with often encourages people to try to build a complete set from P-1 to P-98, but this still excludes the newer bond notes (P-99 and P-100) and includes the 1st dollar traveler's checks and Standard Chartered bearer checks P-13 through P-20 and P-24 through P-27), when seemingly few others do.
    I think ultimately I'll have to arrive at my own definition of complete for this set / project, which may end up being whenever I just decide I'm satisfied or I'm done.
     
  18. Revenant

    The person on this note...

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Notes
    I finally found a reference that names who the person on the back of the new $50 note is supposed to be... Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, aka Mbuya Nehandra

    A female hero of the “Chimurenga,” or what is now called the “First Chimurenga,” which was the war of the native Africans to fight the British South Africa Company in an attempt to stop the colonialization of Rhodesia / Zimbabwe. She was a spirit medium and spirit leader of the Shona. She was captured and executed in 1898. It is believed she was born around 1840 and she would have been 45-50 at the time of her death. In the lead up to and after independence (the war for independence became the “2nd Chimurenga“) she was honored by Zimbabweans with statues, street names, naming hospitals, songs, novels and poems.
    I'm wondering what they based the image on. I can't imagine there are many surviving photos or portraits of someone who was born, lived, and died in pre-colonial Southern Africa, but I could be wrong about that. By 1890 photography was getting more accessible.
    Wikipedia just shows the one image: It looks like there are a LOT of statues of her in Zimbabwe based off this one image but it does look like there are others.


  19. 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.
     
  20. 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.



  22. 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.
  23. Revenant
    About 2 weeks ago I decided to bid on a P-6 Zimbabwe note that was PMG graded 68 EPQ. I already had a P-6 in 66 EPQ and I don't normally buy "upgrades," but this was a CD prefix where what I had was a CA prefix so I decided that was justification enough to go for it. The seller took his time in shipping it out but it came in the mail today. We quarantine our mail because of the current situation but hopefully I'll get to snap some photos of my own soon. Seller's photos below:

    Then, about 4 days ago, another seller I've worked with before listed a P-7, a P-5b and a P-100a in 67 EPQ. I didn't have any of these and they're great grades. I had a P-5a but not a P-5b. This was only the 2nd graded P-7 I'd seen and the last one was only a 64 EPQ. So I wanted these. The seller also had a P-9 in 68 EPQ - another note I needed in a great grade - but that was a BIN and not an auction like these others.
    I decided to go for them and buy the P-9 if I could win some or all of the others and still had some fun spending money left.
    Things were going well until shortly before they were all supposed to end last night with 3-6 hours to go. I decided to abandon the P-100 and focus on the P-7, P-5b, and maybe P-9 and make some big strides in the 1st dollars. One of these days I'll actually pull the trigger on the bond notes but I really want these 1st dollars. It would be so great to have that set complete one day.
    I did end up winning the P-7, the P-5b and then bought the P-9. It'll probably take a good 2-3 weeks for the notes to arrive because the seller is abroad, but, when they do, I'll have a 92% 1st dollar registry set with 11/12 pick numbers represented - everything except the P-3. I also have the P-1a, P-1b, and P-1c and the P-5a and P-5b. That set has come together pretty darn good.



    The seller I bought these others from also had a 67 EPQ P-3, but the asking price is a bit steep - it'd be the most expensive note in the set - and I'd already spent enough today and this month on this set. In general, the P-3 is expensive. Even if you get one of the more common varieties it's just one of the more expensive notes in the series. I'll get it one day. I have to to complete the set, but I'm going to wait a bit longer to bite that bullet.
    Interestingly (to me) all 4 of these are from the 2nd series of the 1st dollar from the 1990s. The P-3, if I'd gotten it, would have been the only new note from the 1st series, from the 1980s.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.