One hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars (uncirculated) - a real steal at $6.99!

Several 1993-series Yugoslav dinar hyperinflation issues have also been added to the catalogue for your consideration.

Five hundred billion dinars. Yugoslavia, 1993.

Five hundred billion dinars - Yugoslavia 1993 XF/EF - Click image for full-size scan

This note once held the dubious honor of being that with the largest number of zeros — eleven! — ever placed into circulation. Lately, though, Robert Mugabe’s wholesale robbery of the population of Zimbabwe has beat the record, with notes in the hundreds of trillions (yes, including printed zeros) being issued.

I have a few of these for sale. They’re collector’s items, and the perfect gift for your economics teacher or the uppity Austrian economist in your family. US$15 will get you one, shipped anywhere in the world at no additional charge. If you’re interested, please contact me by email. You may not receive the serial number or exact note pictured. All are in XF/EF condition, which means very lightly circulated with small corner bending and minimal very light creasing.

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on hyperinflation
• Hyperinflation Nation | The Final Prayer
• Hyper-Inflation in Weimar Germany

• Related Blogs on inflation
• Take-Home Pay Won’t Increase Much from Inflation Adjustment in …
• Market Minds » Pomboy: Deflation, Not Inflation, Is The Greater Threat
• Managing the risk of inflation during economic recovery – the case …

• Related Blogs on Yugoslavia
• DVD of the week: The Death of Yugoslavia (1995) « Library & LR news
• Disney’s cruise ships returning to Europe : e Yugoslavia

Lack of bank note paper threatens Zimbabwe economy

The country, already suffering hyperinflation, is on the brink of financial collapse, analysts say.

HARARE, ZIMBABWE — It has come to this: Zimbabwe is about to run out of the paper to print money on.

Fidelity Printers & Refiners, the state-owned company that tirelessly churns out bank notes for the Robert Mugabe regime, was thrown into a crisis early this month after a German company stopped supplying bank note paper because of concerns over Zimbabwe’s recent violent presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent by international observers.

The printing operation drastically slowed. Two-thirds of the 1,000-strong workforce was ordered to go on leave, and two of the three money-printing shifts were canceled.

The result on the streets was an immediate cash crunch.

“If you think this currency shortage is bad, wait two weeks. By then it will be a disaster,” said a senior Fidelity staffer, who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because he would face dismissal and possible violence for talking to a Western journalist. The paper will run out in two weeks, he said.

The Zimbabwe dollar (Z$) has the dubious honor of being the world’s current Least Valued Currency Unit, currently over Z$200 billion per weakened, flailing US$, and with an exchange rate rising at billions per day.

Folks must be looking back fondly to just a few months ago when a beer went for a very reasonable Z$95.6 million…

As usual in the tame media, the timid approach to the cause of the phenomenon is buried at the end:

Everyone at Fidelity Printers knows the money printing is propping up Mugabe, the staffer said.

People read this, and think that inflation is some sort of natural disaster, like a tornado or earthquake, something that just “happens” to an economy. It is not. The money isn’t “propping up” Mugabe, it’s a symptom of Mugabe and his cronies stealing as much of the economy as they can get their hands on.

I could go on, but I don’t really expect anything more from the LA Times.

Z$1.2 billion dinner check from Zimbabwe

Ah, good old hyperinflation. Reminds me of a couple of old banknotes I keep lying around for fun:

One hundred million billion pengő, Hungary, 1946

One hundred million marks, Germany, 1923