#zims

Zimbabwe's Central Bank recently introduced a new set of gold coins in a bid to boost the country's economy. The coins, which come in denominations of 2, 5, 10, and 20 Zimbabwean dollars, are said to be made from locally sourced gold.

The introduction of the new coins has been met with mixed reactions, with some Zimbabweans expressing excitement at the prospect of having a new form of currency, while others have raised concerns about the practicality of using gold coins in everyday transactions.

Which Zim Currencies Can Be Used to Purchase the Coins?

One of the main questions that has been raised is whether RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) dollars can be used to purchase the gold coins. RTGS dollars are Zimbabwe's official currency and are used for electronic transactions, but they are not widely accepted by all merchants.

According to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the new gold coins can be purchased using any form of legal tender, including RTGS dollars. This means that Zimbabweans who have RTGS dollars can use them to buy the gold coins.

What about Zimbabwe’s 2008 Hyperinflation Currency?

Unfortunately for collectors around the world who have made the 2008 $100 Trillion Zimbabwe banknote one of the most popular numismaic collectibles of all-time, they won’t be able to help land the new gold Zimbabwe coins.

The reason is rather simple. 2008 Zimbabwean money cannot be used to buy anything, much less cold coins. In 2008-2009, Zimbabwe experienced hyperinflation, and as a result, the currency became practically worthless. In response, the Zimbabwean government abandoned the Zimbabwean dollar and adopted a multi-currency system. The primary currencies used in Zimbabwe are now the US dollar, the South African rand, and other foreign currencies. At the height of the hyperinflation, Zimbabwe released a $100 trillion dollar bill, which at its height was worth something like $1.36 USD.

Gold coins, like any other goods or services, typically require a recognized currency or a form of payment that is widely accepted. Since the 2008 Zimbabwean money is no longer in use and has no value, it cannot be used to purchase gold coins or any other items. If you're interested in buying gold coins, you would need to use a recognized currency or another form of payment accepted by the seller.

However, while officiallt the RTGS dollar can be used to purchase the coins, some experts have warned that using RTGS dollars to purchase gold coins may not be the most practical option. This is because the value of gold is constantly fluctuating, and it may be difficult for merchants to accurately determine the value of the coins in RTGS dollars.

Despite these concerns, the introduction of the new gold coins is seen as a positive step towards stabilizing Zimbabwe's economy, which has been struggling for years due to hyperinflation and a shortage of foreign currency.

The use of gold as a form of currency is not new in Zimbabwe. The country has a rich history of gold mining, and gold was once used as a medium of exchange before the introduction of paper currency.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in gold as a form of currency, with some countries, such as China and Russia, increasing their gold reserves in an effort to diversify their currencies.

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By: Peter Egan

Zimbabwe banknotes (aka: “Zim Bonds”) being sold out of China have been identified as fake. How prevalent is the problem?

“The whole (eBay) marketplace is toxic right now as a result...“  ~ eBay Seller

Sometime in May I made a purchase of an eBay listing for ten $100 Trillion Zimbabwe banknotes from a new seller I was not familiar with who was based out of China. I do business with a couple of Chinese sellers who are great to do business with, whose products are always authentic, relatively inexpensive and delivered to me quickly. This seller is not one of them. The listing was priced well below market rates, and part of me suspected they might be fake. Still, the price was too good to not give it a shot, figuring that if in fact they were fake I could always return them.

BELOW: Counterfeit $100 Trillion Dollar Bill (Zimbabwe Currency)

BELOW: Zimbabwe Flag

Until I saw a counterfeit Zimbabwe $100 trillion dollar banknote from the 2008 hyperinflation currency, I didn’t believe that they even existed. After all, why would anyone who has made the investment into state-of-the-art counterfeiting equipment and the supplies needed to operate it waste their time, money and focus forging a currency that has the dubious distinction of being history’s most worthless currency? They wouldn’t, right?

Well, I figured they’d be out making dollars or Euros or Yen or something similar until I opened up a shipment from an eBay seller whose price was so low I had to take a flier on his products. 

Well, my first assessment of these notes from China was correct. The notes did in fact turn out to be fake. However, they were such good fakes that I would be shocked if most buyers would have been able to determine that they were in fact counterfeit. The notes even had the long-rumored color-changing ink on the left-side of the obverse side of the note (more on this in a bit). However, the notes lacked any of the security fibers that glow under ultraviolet lighting, which is the one security feature present in every authentic $100 trillion Zim bond note I’ve inspected. Color-changing ink is not, however so many high-profile sellers have documented that this is a security feature present (it is not -- at least not in enough of the legitimate, authentic notes to be used to exclude all notes absent it) that buyers generally tend to go in with the false impression that notes absent that ink are fake. The truth is that in all of my research, I’ve seen $10, $50 and $100 trillion Zimbabwe banknotes that were authentic and had serial numbers printed with an ink that changed from red to bright orange under UV lighting. However these make up a very small percentage of the notes in these denominations, as most authentic notes do not have this feature.

BELOW: Gif of a Hollywood money counterfeiting machine.

The absence of the security fibers was enough to raise red flags about my purchase from a new-to-eBay Chinese vendor. Other noticeable discrepancies including the coloring being slightly off make me even more suspicious. Finally, I went and brought them to a professional who conformed what by then I already knew --- that the ten 100T notes I bought were fake. When I went to try to return them I found that the seller’s eBay account was no longer active, but by looking at the old listing, I was able to determine that he had sold at least nine lots of ten notes to other buyers besides myself, a few of whom left positive feedback.

“The whole (eBay) marketplace is toxic right now as a result of these fake notes entering circulation over there. There’s no telling how many have not been identified and removed from circulation. The seller who reported these did so at his own expense, and he took a considerable loss to remove the fake ones from the marketplace. How many others would be willing to eat a loss when they know they can get away with selling them and making them someone else’s problem. And that’s just the ones who figure out that they’re fake. Most won’t even get that far, especially collectors who don’t sell the stuff for a living.”   ~ eBay Seller on the Plague of Counterfeit 100 Trillion Zim notes on the eBay platform

I personally have observed these same notes as those I had purchased, sold by the same seller, listed for resale by other US-based collectors who had decided to try to take advantage of the low rate to flip some of their steal of a deal (at least in their minds... I doubt most collectors even realize that they’re counterfeit), many selling enough to pay for those they keep. But the problem that causes is now they’re in circulation on eBay and are being traded on eBay among secondary sellers who bought from the same Chinese vendor I purchased from, only they haven’t sold hundreds if not thousands of authentic 100 Trillion notes and weren’t able to establish that they were counterfeit like I was able to do.

BELOW: The counterfeit one-hundred trillion dollar Zimbabwe banknote viewed by me under ultraviolet (UV) lighting.

ABOVE: Notice the total lack of security fibers, an omission that becomes more glaring when coupled with the color-changing ink.

So once I knew the notes were fake and knew I couldn’t return them for a refund, I decided to absorb the loss and not resell them. I will be making a couple of videos in which I’ll attempt to communicate to buyers what to look for and how to know if the note you’ve purchased is real or fake, but other than that I have no intention to use or sell the notes, and will almost certainly destroy them on video, a copy of which will be posted here to prove the notes were all destroyed.

In the meantime, buyers should carefully vet their sellers if buying 2008 Zimbabwe banknotes, especially if buying from eBay. It may be best to just avoid eBay for a few weeks and let the market cleanse itself of the forgeries.

BELOW: Egan Store (good seller who is absorbing a loss so more counterfeit notes don’t enter circulation) official logo banner.