hyperinflation collection?

A general hyperinflation type set should definitely include a French Revolutionary Assignat, some issues of which can be purchased for less than $20. Rather than being based on gold or silver, they were based on confiscated Catholic Church property. They printed too many, and hyperinflation ensued.

Adding to France's misery, they made notes that were easy to imitate. The British added counterfeiting to their arsenal of economic warfare against the French. They didn't succeed in vanquishing the French this way, but their efforts prompted this sarcastic admiration from John Quincy Adams, "The mere intention to famish thirty millions of the human race is an effort that must carry its own reward along with it, and even its failure will be not much less glorious than would be its success." Presidents do say the darndest things!

For Zimbabwean currency, it's pretty easy and inexpensive to collect all of the coins and banknotes the country has ever issued, going back to the first two dollar note issued in 1980. The only exceptions to this are some emergency bearer cheques issued in 2003 (if anyone knows where to get the Cargill cheques, please let me know). For the newer stuff I've had repeated good experience with an eBay seller named lightweightbackpacker.

Zimbabwe is now on its fourth Dollar. 1 Fourth Dollar = 1 Trillion Third Dollars = 10 Sextillion Second Dollars = 10 Septillion First Dollars. Wow!

 

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A man was going on vacation to brazil, so he changed his dollars for local currency. They told him of course you know that you will be getting less in return for your dollars right? he said o.k.

Then he traveled to italy and changed more american currency there. He was told once again , you know you will be getting less for your dollars right? he said yeah I know.

Than he traveled to mexico. You get the story..........

Than he came home to the U.S. and wanted to exchange all his foreign currency for U.S. Dollars, the clerk said fine. After the exchange rates were calculated, the clerk said, Sir you owe me $25.00 !

 

Here are a few hyper-inflation notes from my collection.



TRANSCAUCASIA S.F.S.R.~1,000,000,000 Ruble 1924



DUSSELDORF (MUNICIPAL)~500,000,000,000 Mark 1924


YUGOSLAVIA (FEDERAL REPUBLIC)~500,000,000,000 Dinara 1993



ZIMBABWE~20,000,000,000,000 Dollar 2008

 

This guy has a Buy it now or make offer..
I did a 3.00 offer and won.. Any want to get some of these.. I bet you can for less then 3

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360205226143&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

I was given hundreds of german hyperinflation notes reichsbank and reichsbahn..( I kinda liked the reichsbahns) not really into the paper money but I couldn't help but keep the better condition notes...sold most of the highly worn or circulated ones..bought coins of course...but it was nice to be a multi trillionaire for a while..:kewl:

 

I dont think the USSR bills I posted earlier would be Hyper.. But I sold some to a guy who said that after the fall he saw people burning these bills for warmth.. He said ha had never had a 1000 Ruble bill so gave him a few extra.. he has more now then his father ever had in the old country..
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150390845488&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

 

a few german hyperinflation

these are a few of my favorite german hyperinflation notes...



the last one really like the reichsbahn wing/wheel design

 

Right back at ya. 2 inseries 100,000 marks notes. Traci :kewl:

 

have a couple of those as well...very nice

 

Standard of Value

Starting from the last point -- a silver US quarter would probably buy ONE DOZEN EGGS in Zimbabwe as it would here, but here that would be like $2.50 or $3.00 a dozen and there it is a Gazillion dollars. The standard of value (silver, gold) does not change. What cost a silver quarter when I was a kid (like gasoline for 24.9cents per gallon) still costs a silver quarter, but we call it $2.59 per gallon as the dollar has lost 90% of its value in the last 40 years.

I have been at this for over 40 years, actually, and even did some professional research on the subject. Pretty much the Gold Guys (also the silver guys and for that matter the tungsten and lanthanam crowds) all have a pretty good idea how much gold is on Earth, including what can be extracted from sea water. Yes, there will be a strike, but that is known and predicted. So, the total stock of gold (silver) is fixed. There will never be more. But there is no limit to the number of zeroes you can put on a paper promissory note.

I was born in 1949. When I was 10 years old, 50 years ago, these below cost five cents each. What does a nickel buy today? The inflation we have had is like boiling a frog: you put him in cold water and raise the heat slowly.

 

Yes, I have an envelope of those and others. The envelope is labeled GOOGOLS. (The word "googol" is attributed to Milton Sirotta, then nine. See here. Mathematics and the Imagination, Kasner and Newman, 1940.)

I also have a Turkish note, a bunch of Hungarian pengos and adopengos and the usual. A while back it was pretty easy to get those revalued Brazilian notes overstamped with new denominations but you don't see them in the junk boxes any more.

I guess we would need to define "inflation" and "hyperinflation." Is "hyper" bigger than "super"? We never say "superinflation" always "hyperinflation" but in the sense that it is sudden and catastrophic. But consider the Japanese Yen and the American Dollar. A hundred years ago, Japan went over the gold standard. Their silver Yen and their gold Yen were on the US standard, 1-to-1.

Japan won a string of small wars and lost one big one, and now their yen is worth 1/100 of a dollar, while the dollar of 2010 is worth about 1 to 3 cents of 1940. But they don't feel it, and neither do we because the lower value issues (cent, yen) have dropped away from daily commerce. But if we were do to as the Turkish government did with their Lira, we would have only cent-sized cent coins with Lincoln on them, but they would say 100 cents and the dollar bill would say 10,000 Cents and the ten-spot would be 100,000 and so one up to the $100 bill at 1 Million Cents.

So, if you want to show Inflation Currency, show a Cent, a Dollar and a C-Note.

 

MMMMMMM I love 3 Musketeers. Traci

 

sorry to blow up your thread with german notes, but here are a few more...(just recently been able to get pics on here and am enjoying sharing with everyone here)

 

Those Germans did have a flair for hats !!! Traci