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ZIMBABWE TO ISSUE $100 TRILLION BANKNOTE You thought food prices were high in your neighborhood? Be glad you don't live in Zimbabwe. The hyperinflation there continues to rage out of control. The latest development - a $100 trillion banknote ($100,000,000,000,000)! -Editor  Zimbabwe unveiled a 100 trillion dollar note Friday in the latest grim measure of its staggering economic collapse, heightening the urgency of a new round of unity talks set for next week.The Reserve Bank announced in the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper a series of trillion-dollar denominations to keep pace with hyperinflation that has left the once-dynamic economy in tatters. The new 100,000,000,000,000 Zim-dollar bill would have been worth about 300 US dollars (225 euros) at Thursday's exchange rate on the informal market, where most currency trading now takes place, but the value of the local currency erodes dramatically every day. The move came just one week after the bank released a series of billion-dollar notes, which already are not worth enough for workers to withdraw their monthly salaries. Inflation was last reported at 231 million percent in July, but the Washington think-tank Cato Institute has estimated it now at 89.7 sextillion percent -- a figure expressed with 21 zeroes. When Mugabe took power at independence from Britain in 1980, the Zimbabwe dollar was equivalent to the British pound. To read the complete article, see: Zimbabwe unveils $100 trillion banknote (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ ALeqM5iym5sXEcSQGQ1pMij4dDUWP3jc6g) So who did they get to print this stuff, anyway (and how do they pay for it)? And where are they getting all the paper? Last July we noted that the German firm that had been supplying Zimbabwe with banknote paper withdrew under heavy public pressure. Are they no longer using security paper? -Editor To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: UNDER PRESSURE, GERMAN FIRM STOPS BANKNOTE PAPER SALE TO ZIMBABWE (http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n27a22.html) Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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