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Revenant

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Journal Entries posted by Revenant

  1. Revenant
    I ran across the following in my continuing research from my Zimbabwe note set. It’s from the FAQ of a website that sells the notes.


    This made me shake my head, that anyone would still think it’s possible that these things would ever be money / currency again - 10 years after issuance was suspended and 4 years after the official demonization of the 4th dollars.

    The complete failure of the 2016/2017 bond notes evidences the challenge that Zimbabwe is going to face if they ever hope to have a national currency again. The issuance of the bond notes should also provide evidence of another fact - if Zimbabwe ever does make a new currency, it will do so with the issuance of a new series of notes. It will NOT do so by making these old notes currency again. It’s just not going to happen. They can’t re-monetize that massive amount of currency that they printed and have any hopes of the new currency succeeding. If they do launch a new currency the last thing they will want is for people to be thinking about the old currency and associating the new one with that terrible episode in the country’s history.

    The response in the FAQ says it well - these are defunct. These are novelties. These are “quirky collectables.”

    Even if, by some freak event of cataclysmically bad thinking, they did decide to remonetize these again, they’d probably remonetize the 4th dollar notes, which only run up to $500 - no one is going to become an instant trillionaire from them remonetizing all the 3rd dollars. It just will not happen.

    Even if they, at some later time, gain more popularity and start to become more valuable and desirable to the collecting community, they’ll only be slightly more valuable collectables.

    They’re collectables that I happen to enjoy a lot, so I’m going to keep collecting them and building up my set, diving ever further in the rabbit hole with subtleties, nuances and serial numbers… but let’s be real - you’re not going to get rich collecting / hoarding these things.

  2. Revenant

    Operation Sunrise and Zombie Dollars

    By Revenant,


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

    The Venezuela Set is looking solid now!

    By Revenant,


    Venezuelan Bolivares Soberanos
    My P-110 arrived last week and today brought my new P-109 and a new, higher grade P-102 (that is not a star note like the last one).

    With these, I have mostly rolled out / executed my plan for my Venezuela signature set. I still need to scan the two new notes. I still need P-104 and the new 2021 notes. I have a description written up for P-104 that will go up as soon as I have the notes. But that description focuses on the person and the animals / locals on the not and not on the historical narrative for the set / series so It doesn’t hurt my plan / narrative much to have that gap for now.
    I’ll use the descriptions for the 2021 notes to extend the historical narrative for the series, as I can. I’m still working on those.
    I really need to teach myself to pay more attention to watermarks with notes. I often overlook this aspect of note collecting because it has no analogue with coins.

    The Bolivar Fuertes notes have a watermark of the person on the note. Interestingly, the Soberanos don’t do this and just have a watermark of the new Portrait of Simon Bolivar that was used on P-108 through (now) P-114.  I’m not sure what made them switch to using the same watermark on everything.
    Maybe it was to save money. Maybe it was just to get the notes out faster. Maybe it was to give them more flexibility on what denominations they printed with any given paper delivery.
    It’s interesting that there are three men that appear in / on both series. Two have different portraits used in the two different series, but the third uses the same portrait in both series in two very similarly colored notes. This makes the P-104 kind of obnoxious to shop for. You see that portrait as you scroll through, get excited and... it's a P-98! 


    Ddr70’s comment that “Received” is the purgatory of grading is being proven out. I think the Traveler’s Cheque and Bearer Checks were received in the mail on 5/18 and opened and marked as received on 5/24 and they are still… “Received.” Turnaround time on world modern notes has been hanging 21-22 working days, and, if turnaround times really do start when the box hits the mailbox then I’m still hoping I can get the grades on those around 6/22…
  4. 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.
  5. Revenant
    Somewhat inspired by ddr70's recent post about lowball sets, I thought I'd share this today, just for a laugh.
    My new P-5b, P-7 and P-9 notes finally came out of quarantine today and I finally got the certification numbers to add to my set(s).
    With the addition of these notes, my 91-92% complete set now finally beats Muzzer42's 8% complete set... by a whopping 3 points.  

    Muzzer has a P-1d note in MS66 EPQ. The P-1d is the rarest and most valuable variety of the P-1 note. It's the only P-1 variety that I don't own.
    I'm "winning" so hard he could go out at any time and buy any non-P-1 1st dollar note on the cheap and be beating me again.  
    MKMITTAL79 continues to curb-stomp me with a 16% complete set that combines the relatively rare P-2e and P-3b. I still don't have any P-3 (only one I lack completely) and I have the much more common P-2c.
    Now that these notes are out of quarantine I need to get them and my new 68 EPQ P-6 CD-prefix and get some pictures up soon.
    Signature link for my main 1st dollar set (check it out if you want and haven't already):

     
  6. Revenant

    Ooof!! Glad I didn't have my heart set on that.

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwe Bearer Checks
    I'd been quietly watching a P-23d on eBay the last few days. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to bid on it - I just have other priorities right now with trying to fill other holes and send other things in for that set and trying to buy some Venezuela issues I need... another P-23 variety isn't a high priority and it would have needed to go for a good price for me to go for it...
    After shipping it pulled about $120!!
    Wow...
    Around early to mid 2019 the sale prices on these notes were in the toilet. I got a P-5 in 67 EPQ (top pop at the time) for $7.50... Things seem to have turned back  up in late 2019 and 2020 with the new series seemingly bringing in new interest and we're back to some sellers asking for (and getting) some pretty silly amounts.
    There's someone with a P-72 in VF-30, which looks nasty, and they're asking like $450 for it.
    I have plans in motion to fill the last holes in my 1st dollar (P-3) and 2nd dollar sets (P-40, 45, 46), but that last 3rd dollar hole is going to sit empty a while.
  7. Revenant
    I finally finished up the last description I wanted to write for my Venezuelan Bolivar Fuertes set and posted all of the new text to the set.
    I did most of the writing for these weeks ago but then life came up and my focus shifted back to the Zimbabwe notes again and I never finished them and I wasn't sure they were "just right" yet.
    I finished the first one and said "good enough" - get them posted and work / polish from there. It had reached the point where it was bothering me to have all of that 80-90% finished work sitting on a Word file while the set sat bare. So now its up!
    Also: My wife apparently ordered my birthday present yesterday. She was trying to keep it quiet but then Ben saw her and wanted to "help" and gave it away in a big way.
    I'm thinking there's at least 1 Zimbabwe note that makes up part of the present. I guess we'll see.
    Given this, I'm trying to commit to making no coin or note purchases until she gives me my present in 3 weeks / 22 days and I know what that is and can proceed in that knowledge - but there is one big / important Zimbabwe note that I'm seriously thinking about just biting the bullet on because of what it would mean for the set, even though part of me does think I might be overpaying for it just a little. I'm increasingly feeling like it might be worth overpaying for. I guess we'll see how it all comes out.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.

  10. Revenant
    Call it a "soft launch" since, for the time being, the only notes in it are going to be Zimbabwean notes that are also part of my set of that currency's notes for my hyperinflation themed set, but I've decided I'm going to make a signature set of notes that feature elephants - inspired by my sons.
    We have a membership to the Houston Zoo and whenever we go or talk about going the animal that Ben usually mentions wanting to go see is the elephants, which he absolutely loves.
    We also chose elephants as the theme for Samuel's nursery / bedding (for Ben the theme was turtles).
    Several of the Zimbabwean notes feature elephants and some of the artwork, like what appears on P-12 and P-98 is quite beautiful IMO. I've also seen / run across some notes from the Congo with some really great elephant artwork.
    Money is too tight right now for me to actively pursue this beyond maybe just setting up the set / or the bones of it, but this is definitely something I think I want to pursue more fully one of these days when time and finances allow it.
    The set will be called "A Parade of Elephants," which is the more fanciful name given to a group of elephants ("herd" is just so "blah").


  11. Revenant

    Tiny Z dollars

    By Revenant,

    When I first started collecting the Zimbabwean 3rd dollars I thought they were all about the same size regardless of denomination.
    When I expanded my set to include more of the first dollars I started to notice that this wasn't the case with them. I was shocked the first time I held a P-1 note. Compared to the higher denominations in the series it is tiny. The shot below shows the $2 note over the $20.

    Then I finally got some low denomination 3rd dollars - P-65 and P-66 - and I realized that this wasn't exclusive to the 1st dollars. The ZWR had it too, I think the picture below was the $1 note and the $100 note.

    This was a really cool feature / realization for me.
    I'd read years ago that some people were pushing to make the different denominations in the US different sizes - it's an access issue for the blind. The argument was that the current bills deny adequate access to the blind and that making the notes different sizes would allow the blind to tell the difference between them without help.
    After reading that years ago, seeing this was just really neat.
    I don't really see any difference between the sizes of anything after about $500 or $1000. I can only assume this was because they either couldn't make the notes any bigger (They are quite big), or because they chose to standardize around a size to make it easier to keep cranking out higher denomination notes.
  12. Revenant

    The questionable future of the "STAMP CANCELLED" designation

    By Revenant,


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

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

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

    So, I'm really not sure what this means... I'm not sure if they just forgot to include it on this one (which I think was one of 4 or 5 the seller submitted with this group) or if they aren't sure if they're going to keep using it or not, or what.
    But this introduces the idea that my 12 are the only ones that have this label / comment and they may stay that way.  I wonder if that would make them more or less valuable?
    The joys of trying to build registry sets over time and with notes you bought and which were graded by others over a longer span of time.
    Side note, but you can really see that Zimbabwe bird watermark (or at least the outline of it) when you look on the back of these things, at least in my scans.
  13. 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.



     
  14. Revenant
    When the set was introduced around 2016 the Zimbabwean First Dollar Set Category (“1980-2004 Issues, P1-P12, Complete”) included slots for all the sub-types, so instead of a slot for P-4 there were 4 slots for P-4a, P-4b, P-4c, and P-4d. They later went back and reduced the set to just 12 slots – one for each pick #. 
     
    I can only assume NGC decided to do this on their own because I don’t think anyone other than myself has ever had a set in this category so it’s hard for me to believe that someone else (a user / member) asked for or recommended this change. 
    I made my set back in 2016 when they were first introduced to the registry. I went about two years without updating or adding to it after that – fatherhood and unemployment sucking up my time. So I didn’t notice the change in the set / slots until about two months ago when I started paying attention and building up the set again. 
     
    Honestly, I like the change. It makes the set a lot more approachable and significantly easier to build – which was probably what NGC had in mind when they made the change. Collecting a full set of the pick #s for the first dollars is easy enough but building a set with all the sub-types would be expensive and hard. In particular, the 1980s notes that list the name of the Capital city as Salisbury instead of Harare (they changed the name of the city in 1982) seem hard to find. They just don’t seem to pop up very often. 
     
    Now, since I just need a P-11 and I don’t have to care about it being a P-11a or P-11b – unless I want to. The set becomes easier to build – and a lot more fun too if I’m being honest. The whole thing just becomes less daunting. 
     
    This change did hit my set a bit in that I’d bough both a P-4c and a P-4d at a time when they could both be listed in the same competitive registry set together. Now you can’t do that – not with a competitive set. But you can do it with a signature set and that’s exactly what I do these days. That is, after all, the beauty of this place with the signature sets. 
     
    My P-4c and P-4d are both in my newly re-done and re-imagined signature set. I may yet have more instances in the future where I have more than one sub-type within a single pick. I think getting some things like that has a great potential to add depth to the set and strengthen it, but it’s great in a lot of ways to feel like I don’t have to. 
     
    Part of the impact of this, at least to me going forward, is that it makes getting a new pick # that I don’t have an example of a lot more appealing than getting, say, a P-5b when I already have a P-5a in a comparable or better grade. I could definitely be interested in one day getting as many of the different sub-types as I can, but I think that will mostly wait until after I’ve acquired what I want and can find of the different pick #s. 
     
  15. Revenant
    Ever since I found out about them I've been scratching my head thinking about what to do - if anything - about the bank issued bearer checks and traveler's checks.
    They have pick numbers assigned to them (P-13 through P-20 and P-24 through P-27). In that sense, it feels like you can't completely ignore them and like they should be part of the collection.
    At the same time, they were issued by banks, not the RBZ, they could only be used / redeemed once, by the person they had been issued to, and they had to be cancelled - so they weren't really currency or banknotes in any way. They were checks.
    PMG, while they graded a few of these back in the day, says they probably wouldn't grade them currently. So, unless you can get someone to sell you one they have previously graded (and they may not come up for sale), you can't even get graded examples of these, even though there are competitive set categories for them (with no sets because the people that own those graded examples don't list them in the registry).
    It also isn't lost on me that the poster I showed in my last post shows P-28 through P-32, the later bearer checks, but doesn't show the bank-issued checks. So obviously the dealer that made that poster doesn't really think of them or market them as being part of that larger set either. The other major dealer I go through for most of my Zimbabwe notes also doesn't deal in these bank-issued notes at all from what I can see.
    So far I've included blank slots in my signature set with notes on the comments, just to acknowledge each group / set of notes with a slot to acknowledge the pick numbers, but I increasingly wonder if I just need to cut them out / allow myself to ignore them.
    In the context of the larger set, they're just odd. It just feels like they both do and don't belong in the larger set / collection.
  16. Revenant
    With a lot of aggressive expanding of my Zimbabwe set (from 11 notes to 25 notes now) I’m up to having my 1st dollars (P-1 through P-12) and 3rd dollars (P-65 through P-91) both over 50% complete. I also have all of sub-sets or sub-categories for the third dollars (the millions, billions, and trillions) at 50-100%.
    My overall Zimbabwe collection now includes about 25% of the total picks from P-1 to P-98 (P-100 if you include the new $2 and $5 bond notes, which I probably eventually will). Now that I have the 3rd dollars over  50% my next major challenge is going to be building up the 2nd dollar Bearer Checks and Agro Checks more since those are currently barely represented in the set.
    Pictures of the new notes have been lagging since the birth of my son but maybe I'll get to catch up soon.


  17. Revenant
    For a couple of years now I've been saying this image of a high-rise on the back of three 3rd dollar notes is just a "modern high-rise" and that it was paired with the Great Zimbabwe ruins as some kind of past / future, old / new, "progress while honoring the past dichotomy. And that may be true... but what I didn't know until today is that isn't just any building. That is the Reserve Bank Tower... home of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, finished in 1997.




    For a long time now I've been thinking that there had to be some significance to that building - you don't feature just any old tower on your banknotes... but I could never figure out what it was. Then today I just randomly see a picture of it with the caption "Reserve Bank Tower" while looking for something else online - trying to find the origins for the word "Harare."
    Now I can get all sorts of trivia on it.
    It is 393.70 ft tall or 120 meters.
    Has 28 above ground floors.
    Construction started in 1993.
    The style is Postmodernism.
    It's address is 80 Samora Machel Avenue.
     
  18. 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.

     
  19. 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..

  20. 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.
  21. Revenant
    The notes I ordered about a week or so ago have arrived and they’re starting to clear our quarantine period so I’m finally getting to take a closer look at what I bought… and the are not 2016 bond notes.

    The bond notes actually say “Bond Note” and that’s the one modification / omission these 2019 issues make (other than the date) that separates them from the Bond notes.


    I’m laughing to myself because this is 100% my bad for not noticing. The seller’s listing listed them as “P NEW 2019.” The pictures and the labels said 2019… I just was assuming and taking for granted that all the notes that looked like this were the same and were all bond notes and I’d been completely unaware of the fact that the government / RBZ actually did release these like they said they would but they re-used the design of the bond notes – something they never did before.
    I talked about this with the 3rd and 4th dollars. When the 4th dollars were rolled out (even though they were VERY short-lived, even by Zimbabwe standards) the government significantly changed those designs and made sure that the new notes had color schemes that were very different than the 3rd dollar notes of the same denomination to make darn sure that no one would get the two mixed up or use them interchangeably.
    I never would have expected them to do this.
    That said, even though these aren’t bond notes, they’re basically identical, and I’m finally getting to look at these designs in person, with the note in hand, and, dang, I think these are pretty. This really just makes me even more bummed that the $10 and $20 notes keep not getting released. I would have loved to have seen what they had planned for those. How dare the people of this poor, long suffering, country get in the way of my collecting fun, right?!? First World Problems, man.
     
     
  22. Revenant
    So, in asking a question about grouping invoices I found out that the gas coupons would need to go in under “economy special,” and not “modern,” like I’d been thinking and hoping. That ups the cost of grading these from $20 each to $40 each. And… I don’t think it’s worth that for now. It is / was just so much easier for me to justify $20/note for fun and the enjoyment of popping those into that signature set but it is so much harder to justify $40/note. I thought about it. I just can’t talk myself into that for now.
    Not a complaint about the fees or saying their services are not worth it but I don’t think its worth $40 / coupon to me to get those coupons graded. Unless they just graded REALLY well, I don’t think that’d be money I’d ever see again. Sometimes you notice that something hasn’t been done / graded before and you figure out why.
    I have them. I have examples of a lot of them in good condition, safe in top loaders. I may add more varieties, but I have what I have and raw / ungraded is good enough for me for now.

    Incidentally, since I only have about $140 left of my grading credit, and I really want to grade those 2 P-3 notes I bought raw, and something came up today that might also lead to me grading something else…
    I’d been thinking this morning, even before this news that I might need to scale back my planned / hoped for 7-8 in favor of something else. I won’t say what that is in case it doesn’t pan out but… yeah. I think this news killed the plan of grading the coupons for now.
    So I’m not saying the plan to grade the gas coupons is dead, but it most likely won’t be this year.
    This may oddly make me more interested in getting more of these and having a raw collection of them, just enjoying them and not worrying about it.
    Maybe, since they’re basically one-sided, I just composite some images together and use an extra note to plug in some images into the signature set and talk about them there anyway in a raw state.
     
    In other news, the checks arrived home today! I'm thrilled!
    15 Notes and 3 top pops. I never would have dared hope for that could of an outcome with the Traveler's Checks. I just kept telling myself to try to be happy with 12 AU50s and AU55s and like 63s and 64s on the bearer checks, because I just didn't want to be disappointed.


  23. Revenant

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

    By Revenant,


    Venezuelan Bolivares Soberanos
    I'm starting to get frustrated and impatient for some VEN 104s to pop up in good grades. There's a 65 EPQ and a 66 EPQ that keep getting relisted and going unsold because... no one wants those. Anyway...
    I'm getting tempted to just snap up that 66 just to fill in the hole in my Soberano set that keeps taunting me but I know that's a mistake.
    The rest of the set just came together so fast and so easy and now that one gap is taunting me and graded examples of the new 2021 notes still haven't hit the market yet to distract me...
    I want a 67 EPQ or a 68 EPQ. I just paid to get a 68 EPQ of the 102a to replace a 66 EPQ 102a*. I just put money into bumping a 66EPQ VEN91 to a 68EPQ in the competitive set... I don't want to buy any more 66 EPQs right now! Even if it is cheap!
    I'm probably ultimately going to try to make all the 66 EPQs in my Venezuela competitive sets 68 EPQs, but I'm going to try to get different varieties to simultaneously build up the signature set in a fun way. I'm not going to start actively chasing variety sets, but if you're upgrading anyway, why not at least get different varieties so they build-on / expand what you have instead of just making redundancies?
    I have money to spend and stress shopping to do... If these notes don't pop up soon I may start upgrading Zimbabwean 3rd and 4th dollar notes and then the wife is really going to be looking at me sideways...  
  24. 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.
     
     
  25. 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.