Revenant

Ha! Well if you decide instead you'd rather get out of it just let me know. I think that $1 Billion - P-83, which is fairly crazy at 69 EPQ - would be about a 4 point upgrade for me. My P-83 is one of my earliest purchases and one of the relatively few 65 EPQs in my set. Add in the fact that it's in one of those old-gen holders and that's one I could see upgrading one day.

You're an odd one in my experience in that you show little interest in the 3rd dollar series and the P-88 to P-91 block in particular. P-65, P-90 and P-91 are usually among the ones that people go for first. Anyway... blame what you want on me. It makes not difference! You have the sickness now: When you start talking about "a," "b," "c" and "d" you'll know you're in REAL trouble.

About a week ago I placed an order for a couple of 20 L gas ration coupons. Part of the fun thing about having a reasonable price and free shipping was it gave me a chance to place a smaller order and make sure the seller was going to send ones that were in good condition. They came in the mail today and... it's... big. Whenever I've seen these I've only ever seen (what I assume are) scans of them. So they're surrounded in white and there was no size reference. And, without really thinking about it much, I'd always mentally imagined them as being about 1/4th the size that this thing actually is. I guess maybe it's the fact that they're called "coupons," which makes me think of newspaper coupons for grocery store... but this thing is rather... big. They really aren't much smaller than the new series notes. The other thing I can't help but notice is that they have a perforated edge. I was reading on the seller's description about how they got many of these things directly from Harare still in "books" of coupons and these things had tear-away edges to tear them from coupon books. How interesting and how odd. But also, what an interesting and fun addition to the collection. These two coupons are numbered 187788 and 187789, so I'm guessing he ripped both of these out of the same book specifically to send these to me - they were the last two of this type he had listed for sale. Since these look good and I'm happy I'm putting in offers today to get some 5L, 10L, and 50 L coupons that I'm going to try sending in with the P-3d and P-3e notes I should be getting in the mail later this week. Interestingly, even these seem to have type A and type B issues: and then there's potentially Amby and Caltex issues: Edited to add: While I am very proud of what I'd accomplished with my signature set as of the end of 2020, I'm really hoping and thinking that expanding it to include 1) a full set of the traveller's checks, 2) these ration coupons and 3) the inflation era coins and bond coins, it'll really elevate the collection in to something truly unique, special, and great.

At this point I have a pretty long history with this set. I bought my first notes in Dec 2015 / Jan 2016, while we were expecting Ben. I bought a few notes finally then, when I hadn't around 2010, because the prices had finally come down a lot. Even then, I was paying for 65-66 EPQ notes what you now expect to pay for 67-68 EPQ. This influenced the grades I bought back then for some key notes in no small way. In early 2019 you see the final capitulation of some major dealers. One major dealer around this time slashed their asking prices from $25-30 a note to $16-20 for pmg graded notes and started running sales for 50-60% off specifically on Zimbabwe notes - actively just dumping inventory just to get rid of it. This is a big part of why I was able to grow my set from 11 notes to about 60 in a year on a very limited budget after Sam's birth. It is around late 2019, with the release of p101 and p102, that you see these hitting the market with strong asking prices and you start seeing stiffer bidding competition and you see the sales start to dry up - and this place still has inventory so I don't think that was the problem. Incidentally, this is also around the time that PMG featured my Millions set in OCT 2019. That's why I don't attribute this to the pandemic. I think the pandemic is helping and I think those big 3rd stimulus checks are helping. I think revived inflation fears might also be resurrecting interest in the topic of hyperinflation. So there might be an number of things playing in here. One other thing I can't fully assess the impact of is that this is also hitting just a couple months after a certain set won an award and a $500 grading credit for a Zimbabwe collection. I got you into this. I wonder if I got Bonez onto this or if he found it on his / her own. Some people started hopping on both Venezuela and Zimbabwe shortly after my Venezuela set got featured in late 2020 - which could have brought people into my profile where they saw my Zimbabwe sets. There really is a chance that with the Oct 2019 feature, the 2020 award win and all these journals that I am my own undoing. I can live with that I think. Yeah Definitely some promising news on that front. I'll post more about this soon but I need to make an order soon I think.

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.

Okay, thank you! I'll chase that up soon. At least I know to not bid on that other one. I mean, I guess technically the grade is a point higher but I'm just not willing to prioritize something over that.

I have a note labeled 23e and there's a note I was considering trying to buy that's labeled as a 23f but I cant see a difference between them in terms of the labels, the dates... it seems like they should be the same pick number. Are these actually different or did they change the catalogue?

I don't know if all the mail is handled together / by the same people but I do know that NGC has having a lot of mail and a significant (~2-3 week) lag between when a box is received and when it is opened. I have recently sent in some notes and the new tool confirms that you do have the box in your possession now (thanks for that nice tool btw - really takes some stress off the wait to see it pop up in the system). Now I'm just wondering how long it might be before you open it and it is formally in the system.

Okay. Thanks! I'll probably send some in in a month or so!

Well, in fairness I was talkin about your overall pop numbers, not doing it by pick number, that sounds like a lot of work.

I'm looking into getting some gas ration coupons from the Zimbabwean hyperinflation period. I'd like to get a few of them graded / put in holders soon to add them to my Zimbabwe signature set, but I don't know for sure if this is something PMG would be willing to authenticate and encapsulate. I'm hopeful because they are RBZ issues and the have the RBZ seal and they have serial numbers, but I'm not really wanting to pay to mail them in and looked at just to have them sent back. If that's going to be the case I'd rather just have a spare cert# from another note be used to fill a gap and talk about them in the signature set.

A comment I've made to myself that I'll repeat: "Sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good." I went through a while where I couldn't make myself happy with my Venezuela set and I had nothing up and eventually I just posted what I had while I gave myself time to think - and PMG gave me a feature. Sometimes you just have to work on it until you figure it out. I'm finally closing in on an overall plan and presentation for the Venezuelan signature set. But I'm only getting there because I've kept playing and tweaking. My 4th dollar and New dollar descriptions went through MANY adjustments as the timeline advanced.

Well, the "great" / helpful thing about the Bolivare Fuertes set is that it's broken into 2 6-note series that basically use the same designs in the same order. So I can use the descriptions of the 2nd series to focus on the bio information and the animals and places while I use the 1st series to focus on the history of the run-up to the hyper inflation and just say, "look at this note for more information on the people, animals and places." So I can strike a balance that way.

Anyone remember that (now, somewhat) old movie "Rose Red?" Remember that line, "It's finished, when YOU say it's finished"? I feel like that's the case with any major collecting project / journey. It's over when you decide you're done - but, it can keep going as arbitrarily long as you want it to! And I'm realizing that's going to be the case with the Zimbabwean set... and I'm just not sure I'm done yet. 🤣 I posted some months back about horrifying my wife with the comment that there were more varieties I could go for and replacement notes and specimen notes... and the RBZ still hasn't given up! Just updated my P-104 description because they say they have some fight left! I was also thinking I could add some more SA Rand denominations that would have been in Zimbabwe at the time and maybe some of the other currencies in use during the multi-currency period. I'm not nearly as super-gung-ho as I was in 2019/2020 - trying to build a Pick set - but I'm still very interested in continuing to grow and build, update and evolve that set... and, like Rose Red, it may never be finished until I am. 🤣 On a related note... I've been watching some 5 L and 20 L gas ration coupons for a while where the seller had them listed for $1.99 but with a $5 shipping charge. I knew from prior experience from this seller that they'd combine shipping for +$1 per additional item, so if I bought all four of these things I could get them for $16 or about $4 each. I just had a hard time convincing myself to do that. I'd often thought about tacking them on to another, larger order but I always forget - case in point, I could have added them to that $124 bolivar order for $12, $3 each... Anyway... I saw another seller listing some 20L coupons for $4 + free shipping and I just pulled the trigger. I don't even know what possessed me to do it. It was $8+tax and I just decided in that moment that I wanted it and I was going to get them after months of hem-hahing. I think it was about being able to just snap up a couple for under $10 and not make a bigger outlay all at once. Anyway... If I like the quality / condition the seller has some 5L, and10L coupons for $5-5.50 that I may offer them $3.50-4.00 for to get 2 of each. They also have some of the 50L coupons, which seem less common, for $8. I think I'm going to stick to coupons with the RBZ seal and not the Amby ones... for now. I still do not know if these are even things PMG will grade. I may touch base with them on that, but I still like the idea of having some of these, even if they stay in a small flip-style currency album from Hobby Lobby. If PMG will not grade them I may use the cert#s for some of my extra traveller's checks to let me backdoor the coupons into "Gradually, then suddenly." But... yeah... I've officially gone beyond "notes" by getting those 1-use, cancellable checks and now gone beyond "currency" in the catalogue by buying things that don't have assigned pick numbers and gone beyond "currency" to expand into coins I'm working on submitting. The many times I've broadened the scope of this set to include something that absolutely was not part of the original plan... Like new rooms / wings on a house? 🤔

I've often thought, in the extreme case, I could start collecting duplicates based on collecting different 2 letter prefixes on Zimbabwean notes. That would represent going into the weeds a but but... 😅

No, I haven't had to file claim, but just send it registered and declare a high value and they are very unlikely to lose it, honestly.

That has been my biggest challenge on the Venezuelan set. I didn't really have this problem on the Zimbabwean notes because the designs are frankly kinda repetitive and boring 😅 so I focused on the history. But I'm actively working on a revamp of the Venezuelan set that will make me (finally) happy and I think it'll be a winner - just maybe not literally winning anything."

For your Zimbabwe set or your Ukrainian set?

I think they give you a few for free every month and I make do. I just found that by googling.

The whole thing is such a mess. That announcement is really odd in that the usually didn't do that. They don't announce "intent" to release a note. They release a new note. That announcement, when you read between the lines, was more about denying the $100 & $200 notes, which people were already speculating about, and it came right after a guy on the MPC, Eddie Cross, said the release of a new $50 was imminent and that "higher denominations" where in the works. I think that was a denial of the higher denominations to try desperately to put a lid on inflation expectations. https://www.techzim.co.zw/2021/01/rbz-confirms-introduction-of-50-banknote-but-denies-100-200/amp/?fbclid=IwAR3-JV-inzlMQVfTIDth-6SI2H4B2Fm2S3HQ-PzxO858_a6_y_NHRJX9Nx4#aoh=16210904523700&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From %1%24s I think, however, that if that $50 was coming it would be formally announced by now, and the last thing I can find on it is a Feb 2 article talking about how black marketeers where doing the over/under on the announcement. They've surprised me before - I never thought we'd actually get the $10 and the $20 and then they released them, but I really think that only happened because they already had the designs prepared from the failed Bond Note run and they just had to remove "bond note" and hit "print." I don't think a $50 design was part of the original Bond Note plan, so I think they'd be making that from scratch, and I just don't see them doing that for a Z$50 note at this point. Also: There was an article i saw from Nov 2020 saying that people were back to using USD for basically everything and back to literally washing and repairing old, nasty dollar bills and continuing to use old US dollars - no matter how terrible the condition - just because that was the only thing people wanted, not the new Z dollars. https://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/zimbabwe-brings-different-meaning-to-money-laundering https://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/zimbabwe-embraces-u-s-dollar-as-currency-shortage-continues If governments are good at anything though, it's denying reality: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-30/zimbabwe-rules-out-return-to-u-s-dollar-backs-local-currency At this point, I'm guessing we'll see a new redenomination, a new currency / currency system, and maybe a brand new series around late 2021 or 2022. Okay, because they made me do it, my Mid-2021 update to my $20 note (P-104) https://notes.www.collectors-society.com/registry/notes/NoteDetail.aspx?PeopleNoteID=90997&PeopleSetID=26566 What a mess. What a disgrace, and what a crying shame.

A $1000 note would at least maybe get you a loaf of bread. That new $50 note would only be worth about a dime.

Huh. I missed that one. Mkay. So they're taking the Venezuelan P-100 approach- releasing 1 last 1-off before giving up (If they're smart or wising up). From everything I've seen there's little point in a Z$50. They need to skip a bit like they did back in the day and hit a $500, $1000, $2000.

So... I think I have enough credit left to send in 7 more modern issues for grading after this under the credit. 🤔 I so I think I need to try to get some of those soon just for fun, and maybe a P-3 note or two to be a cheap gap filler even if it doesn't come back super high grade. I mean, I know you are joking but they are kinda due. We got 2 in 2019 and 2 in 2020. So they are due to issue new collectables. But I have not heard anything official saying they're wasting more paper to print $50 and $100 notes. I honestly wouldn't mind. 2 notes a year is manageable. 30 in 2 years hurts.

I'll give you the update first when I know! Just for fun, where you thought one of the checks would grade higher, I submitted those to one invoice and submitted the others to another. We'll see if all the higher grades come back on the one invoice. Either way I'll have two groups of -001 to -006 and I'll make one competitive set with the higher grades and a set with the lower grades (even if they don't all have the same invoice #) and I'll have a signature set of all of them + the P-15 I already have. I'm excited though! Those 3 2nd dollar notes will make my 2nd dollar set 100% complete! I'll only have 1 hole (P-72) from P-32 to P-104! OMG! That's going to be INSANE! I never would have imagined!

So... Please tell me you've gone full nerd and there's a spreadsheet and a chart / graph?