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.

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