This crisp new Zimbabwean one-hundred trillion dollar note is an artifact of the fairly recent and economically devastating hyperinflation that Zimbabwe has gone through in the late 90's until the end of the 00's. According to one study Zimbabwe's peak month of inflation is estimated at 79.6 billion percent in mid-November 2008! It has since moved onto using the US Dollar as the leaders could never stabilized their own currency in order to facilitate meaningful trade and business within their own borders.
It's a great reminder of how much harm a runaway fiat system can do to a country and its people. In the end it wasn't able to purchase more than the equivalent of a few US dollars worth of goods. So now their only value is as collectors items and in a sad bit of irony, their value as such has increase tremendously. I bought it for around $5 US and they are currently selling for on average around $75!
Such is life...
I know the community here is much more interested in cryptos than in fiats, but looking at currencies from around the world can be a really interesting way to learn about the values and history of different countries. So I might go through a few of the others in my small collection to post about and see what things I can find out and share with you.
Thanks for reading my post and let me know what you think.
