A Z$100,000,000,000,000 souvenir
Source: Agencies |
January 3, 2011, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WESTERN visitors to Zimbabwe are looking for zeros. They're snapping up old, defunct Zimbabwe bank notes, most notably the 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill, as an economic souvenir.
The 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill - 100 followed by 12 zeros - now sells for US$5, depending on its condition.
That bill and others - among them millions, billions and trillions, were abandoned nearly two years ago when the US dollar became legal tender in the hope of killing off the record inflation that caused all those zeros.
"I had to have one," said Janice Waas on a visit to the northwestern resort town of Victoria Falls. "The numbers are mind bending." She got her so-called "Zimdollar" in pristine condition from a street vendor who usually sells African carvings.
"It's perfect if you like puzzles, calculus and things like Rubik's Cube," she said.
Janice's husband, Thomas Waas, a physicist and engineer from Germany, said if the population of the world is 7 billion people, every single person could be a given thousands of old Zimbabwe dollars from this single 100 trillion note.
Janice Waas said Westerners were buying the bills for their curiosity value. An Australian wanted one to display in his local bar back home.
Street vendors said visitors have been so intrigued by the Zimbabwe bills that supplies are now running out, two years after a power sharing deal between longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe and the former opposition leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, made the old currency redundant.
Visitors from countries familiar with hyperinflation, such as the Congo and other impoverished states in the region and in South America, show less interest in the highly marked bills. Instead, most buy curios and artifacts, said vendor Lloyd Phiri in Victoria Falls.
At the height of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown in 2008 when its world record inflation was running into the billions in percent annually and prices were climbing each hour, the 100 trillion bill scarcely bought a cart of groceries.
Teachers reported the shift of bank notes from millions to billions and then trillions skewed their pupils' sense of numeracy, making them fail to grasp the realities of numbers.
On a geography field trip, students scoffed at being told granite rocks swept over Zimbabwe by ancient glaciers were 700 million years old. That time frame seemed insignificant.
Back in 2008, 700 million Zimbabwe dollars barely bought a loaf of bread.
Scientists and physicists estimate the number of atoms in the universe at 10 to the power of 80 - 10 followed by 80 zeros.
During the worst of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation, its highest money denominations were logged at 10 to the power of 25 - 10 followed by 25 zeros.
The central bank then sliced off several zeros, but large transactions were still calculated in quadrillions (15 zeros) and quintillions (18 zeros) until the demise of the currency.
The 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill - 100 followed by 12 zeros - now sells for US$5, depending on its condition.
That bill and others - among them millions, billions and trillions, were abandoned nearly two years ago when the US dollar became legal tender in the hope of killing off the record inflation that caused all those zeros.
"I had to have one," said Janice Waas on a visit to the northwestern resort town of Victoria Falls. "The numbers are mind bending." She got her so-called "Zimdollar" in pristine condition from a street vendor who usually sells African carvings.
"It's perfect if you like puzzles, calculus and things like Rubik's Cube," she said.
Janice's husband, Thomas Waas, a physicist and engineer from Germany, said if the population of the world is 7 billion people, every single person could be a given thousands of old Zimbabwe dollars from this single 100 trillion note.
Janice Waas said Westerners were buying the bills for their curiosity value. An Australian wanted one to display in his local bar back home.
Street vendors said visitors have been so intrigued by the Zimbabwe bills that supplies are now running out, two years after a power sharing deal between longtime ruler President Robert Mugabe and the former opposition leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, made the old currency redundant.
Visitors from countries familiar with hyperinflation, such as the Congo and other impoverished states in the region and in South America, show less interest in the highly marked bills. Instead, most buy curios and artifacts, said vendor Lloyd Phiri in Victoria Falls.
At the height of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown in 2008 when its world record inflation was running into the billions in percent annually and prices were climbing each hour, the 100 trillion bill scarcely bought a cart of groceries.
Teachers reported the shift of bank notes from millions to billions and then trillions skewed their pupils' sense of numeracy, making them fail to grasp the realities of numbers.
On a geography field trip, students scoffed at being told granite rocks swept over Zimbabwe by ancient glaciers were 700 million years old. That time frame seemed insignificant.
Back in 2008, 700 million Zimbabwe dollars barely bought a loaf of bread.
Scientists and physicists estimate the number of atoms in the universe at 10 to the power of 80 - 10 followed by 80 zeros.
During the worst of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation, its highest money denominations were logged at 10 to the power of 25 - 10 followed by 25 zeros.
The central bank then sliced off several zeros, but large transactions were still calculated in quadrillions (15 zeros) and quintillions (18 zeros) until the demise of the currency.
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