Zimbabwe Dollars Overview

Zimbabwe Dollars is the official currency of the Republic of Zimbabwe. The currency was introduced in 1980 at independence from colonial Britain. The currency had been extremely strong against major currencies for as many as 25 years until about 1998. The Zimbabwe currency traded at par with the British Pound in the 80s and fluctuating sometimes to even become stronger.

By the late 1990 there were signs of weakening of the Zimbabwe dollars as well as the Zimbabwe economy  most as a result of poor unilateral policies of the government of President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. Multi-lateral institutions policies of structural adjustment which forced African governments to devalue their currencies to increase exports also affected the Zimbabwe dollar. In the late 90s the government of Zimbabwe made two key economic blunders that supped strength out of the Zimbabwe dollar. The unbudgeted award of veteran fighters of war gratuities and the involvement of Zimbabwe in the endless foreign war in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) plundered national foreign currency reserves resulting in the currency weakening.

Yet another blunder of the new millennium that destroyed and in fact was the final straw on the Zimbabwe exchange rate was the government sanctioned farm inversions that began in about 2001 country wide. The farm inversions caused unprecedented effects on the national economy that led to shortages and prices hikes. This compounded Zimbabwe's problems apart from destroyed Zimbabwe agriculture.The Zimbabwe dollar engaged in a serious downward trend that saw value being eroded on a daily basis. Due to sanctions that followed from the west, the Reserve Bank in Zimbabwe started to print money in order to fund government projects. Inflation ballooned out of control. From a small denomination as small as $20, Zimbabwe currency denominations rose to millions of Zimbabwe dollars and even trillions. The highest denomination became a 100 trillion note never before seen in modern world history.

Zimbabwe dollars were for sale in thriving parallel market exchange were one American dollar would be exchanged for as much as 100 billion Zimbabwe dollars. Zimbabwe became a country of millions of trillionaires whose money could not provide for them. To retain value fuel coupons became the new currency were schools and other service providers were quoting "prices" in Zimbabwe fuel coupons. This is because fuel coupons were amongst the few items permitted by the government of the day to trade in foreign currency. The Zimbabwe situation continued to deteriorate to the point of no return until in late 2008 an early 2009 when a new government of national unity was sworn-in.

In late 2008 the government had banished the Zimbabwe dollars and introduced a multi-currency system, the first in the world that resulted in inflation in Zimbabwe failing overnight and good and services once again becoming available. Thsi move was generally welcomed by much of the Zimbabwe people as it promised a better life and prosperity once again.

The following are some of the Zimbabwe dollars that were released into circulation over the years;

  $20 1997
  $10 1997
  50 000 Zimbabwe dollars Bearer chq 2006
  $100 000 $ Bearer chq 2006
  20 000 $ Bearer chq 2003
  100 Billion $ Bearer chq 2008
  $100 1995
  $500 2004
  25 Billion $ Bearer chq 2008
  50 Billion $ Bearer chq 2008
  5 Billion $ Bearer chq 2008
  250 Million $ Bearer chq 2008
  10 000 $ Bearer chq 2007
  200 000 $ Bearer chq 2007

  $5  Bearer chq 2007 (Revalued)
  100 000 $ Bearer chq 2007
  $1 Bearer chq 2006 (Revalued)
  750 000 $ Bearer chq 2007
  $20 Bearer chq 2007 (Revalued)
  50 Million $ Bearer chq 2008
  $100 Bearer chq 2007
  500 Million Zimbabwe Dollars Bearer chq 2008
  5000 Bearer $ chq 2007
  10 Million $ Bearer chq 2008
  2500 Bearer $ chq 2006
  $50000 2008
  50 Million $ 2008
  $20 2007 (Revalued)

  $500 000 2008
  5 Billion $ 2008
  20 Billion $ 2008
  10 Billion $ 2008
  1 Billion $ 2008
  500 million $ 2008
  50 Billion Zimbabwe dollars 2008

  $100 2009 (Revalued)
  $5 2009 (Revalued)
  $1 2009 (Revalued)
  $10 2007 (Revalued)
  $5 2007 (Revalued)
  $1 2007 (Revalued)

*** Revalued refers to the central bank practice of removing excess zeros from the currency in order for dat-to-day computing to remain effecient. This happened thrice in Zimbabwe each of the times inflation returned even more ferocious.

The following are some selected pictures of the now defunct Zimbabwe money;

(above) Assorted Zimbabwe currency set 1 - click to enlarge

(above) Assorted Zimbabwe currency set 2 - click to enlarge

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