Talk:Zimbabwean dollar
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When Rhodesia changed its currenct to the R$ it was to the value of 10 shillings to the dollar not pound for pound like you say I lived there then George
[edit] Redenomination plans
Anyone got any details on that? —Nightstallion (?) 20:31, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
No news from the Reserve Bank yet. However, the new Z$50,000 bearer cheques have an expiry date of 31 December 2006. (I thought that the validity of the other bearer cheques had only been extended to 30 June 2006.) Does this mean that the new currency will only take effect in 2007? By the way, Dr. Gono has said that it will be a "new currency", with a more Zimbabwean look, and not just a redenomination of the Zimbabwean Dollar. Blair 2006-02-14
The Reserve Bank issued a Z$100,000 bearer cheque on 01 June 2006 and announced a Z$1 Million bearer cheque to appear in September 2006. I have heard that they don't have enough foreign exchange to purchase banknote paper or ink for the "new currency". Blair 2006-07-05
In July, the RBZ announced that validity of all bearer cheques had been extended to 31 Dec 2006. They also announced that the "new currency" would not be introduced until inflation dropped to double digits. This does not sound like the near future to me. Blair 2006-07-20
[edit] Zimbabwe coins
For fun, I did some very rough calculations about the value of Zimbabwe coins. If we assume that a Zimbabwe 1 cent coin is the same mass as a 1 Euro cent coin, and is composed fully of steel, then its value as a legal tender coin is approximately one ten-thousandth of its value as raw steel. No wonder people prefer to use them as game tokens instead of real money... JIP | Talk 15:03, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
There are now over 400,000 Zimbabwe cents to one US cent (500,000 per one Euro cent) . Blair 2006-07-05
Here is an interesting comparison as of mid July 2006. Three friends could go out in Harare and each order a beer. The total bill would be Zim $450 thousand (about one US dollar at the parallel rate). They decide to pay the tab with 45 million Zimbabwe cents.
The weight of the coins would be 135 tons. Based on current London metal prices, the metal value of these coins would be US $351,000 . Not bad for three beers. Blair 2006-07-10
In June 2005, the RBZ anounced plans for new Z$5,000 and Z$10,000 coins. Has anyone heard or seen anything more of these coins? click for story Blair 2006-07-10
$5,000 coins, $10,000 coins?? First I've heard of it. I say like most of the RBZ proclaimations, this one got axed (perhaps because the currency decided to start the current steep downward trend on October 28th 2005. Zimbabwean 2006-7-15
[edit] Banknote images
The banknote images linked at www.banknotes.com don't seem to be there anymore.. AnonMoos 20:23, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
They renamed their files for Zimbabwe. The pointers have been amended to the new file name. Blair
[edit] Clean up with Banknotes of Zimbabwe?
There's too much redundancy with Banknotes of Zimbabwe. I suggest we merge the section into Banknotes of Zimbabwe and keep the most essential summary in Zimbabwean dollar. --Chochopk 06:02, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
This has been done. Blair
[edit] Update to this article needed NOW
It claims, currently, that the ZWN has been used since 1980; of course, what's meant is that ZWD was used from 80 till 06, and since 06 we've had ZWN. —Nightstallion (?) 12:27, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
The ISO officially announced ZWN as the new code and then withdrew it.
The RBZ could not handle a new currency, so the revalued dollar will have the same ISO code (ie ZWD).
The RBZ uses the term "revalued dollar" and not "new dollar".
The first part of the article has been rewritten to reflect these points.
Blair (10 SEP 2006)
- They couldn't handle a currency code change? Fucking incompetent, I'd call that. —Nightstallion (?) 14:10, 15 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Detail on change over
It says
- Also on 1 August 2006 the Government of Zimbabwe revalued the Zimbabwean dollar vs. the US dollar at a rate of 2.5 to 1. The net effect of both actions was a revaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar vs. the US dollar at a rate of 400 to 1.
I thought just before the redenom, 1 USD = 100,000 ZWD, and after the redenom, 1 USD = 250 ZWN = 250,000 ZWD. What does the so called "net effect" mean? --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 05:13, 9 September 2006 (UTC)
You are partly correct. The ISO declared then withdrew the ZWN code. It reverted to ZWD again. So, 1 USD = 250 ZWD (REVALUED) = 250,000 ZWD (OLD).
Please Note: These are the OFFICIAL exchange rates. Only the Government can buy USD from the RBZ at this price.
For most people and businesses, the parallel market still offers the USD for about revalued ZWD $650. On large volume purchases, the parallel rate is revalued ZWD $700 to $800 per USD.
Blair (10 Sept 2006)
[edit] Edit of section New currency (2005-6) and revaluation (2006)
This section was rewritten. Grammar and spelling was corrected. Blair (10 Sept 2006)
[edit] New table
The new table is much better! Thanks to User:Nik42. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 18:54, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
- Thanks. :-) The old one had been bugging me for a while, so I finally decided to do something about it. Nik42 19:55, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Template:ZWD Inflation
I created the template "Template:ZWD inflation", because it was being used in other areas such as hyperinflation and it wasn't being updated frequently enough. 159753 16:44, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
- Good job! Copying and pasting large bulk of data (as well as code) is a bad practice. They ought to be reused as much as possible. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 07:46, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Inflation
I don't know anything about these things, but the 2007 inflation is stated as 9000% in the template and 4500% in the inflation-table. Which is correct?Twerbrou 10:13, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
- I think 4500% is the official figure and 9000% is the estimate by non-government analysts. We should probably be using the official figure. --Tango 14:18, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
-
- Independent press is reporting the inflation rate to be about 15 000 % now. The inflation rate is changing on a daily basis. 76.211.6.150 16:57, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
You are correct. The last RBZ official rate (leaked out) was 4530% for May 2007. However, the RBZ has stopped publishing the inflation figures. (We can easily guess the reasons why.) Unofficial inflation figures of 9000% to 15000% (year-over-year) come from non-government economic analysts. In the absence of any official RBZ numbers we should be using the unofficial figure, but make a note that the figures are UNOFFICIAL. --Stannard 20:58 (UTC), 10 July 2007
[edit] Split?
I think a great deal of this article refers to the current inflation in Zimbabwe, which has already enough to make a new article Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. But I wonder if that's proper, since I'm merely a passerby. --Samuel di Curtisi di Salvadori 14:25, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
- I'm not sure there is actually enough content to warrant a split. We should probably make the current article more concise - the tables are a little excessive. How about we reduce the exchange rate table to one rate (or a range) per month? --Tango 21:24, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Banknote question
Is anyone aware what the numbers 02022909 at the bottom of the banknote are for (there is already a printed serial number.) I've had a look arounf the net and all the latest bearer cheques appear to have the same number. Tarcus (talk) 09:01, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
- Since these are notes are "bearer cheques" and not true banknotes, this is the number of the account at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that these bearer cheques are charged to. (Just like your account number is on your personal cheques.) Stannard (talk) 16:07, 03 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Anything look familiar?
Anything look familiar on http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/jan10_2008.html#Z2 ? --Tango (talk) 19:12, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
- I think that we should charge them a $15 million license fee. Then we could buy one hamburger and share it between us. 8*)
--Stannard (talk) 01:00, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Neutrality
The neutrality issues mainly consist of unsourced claims of problems. I don't doubt that there were many problems, but they need to be cited and fairly represented. For example, the "other problems included" list has 6 problems listed, without any inline citations. Then it says, "Most economists have blasted the move as merely political.", which is weasel wording because no economists are named. Later, it says point-blank, "The implements and cattle are to be used to buy votes in the 2008 election." Surely, some other sources would dispute that, and the source it's from attributes it to "unconfirmed information". In other places, it has negative tone like "started badly" or "problem-ridden", which aren't necessary; we can present the facts (with citations) and let the reader decide. Superm401 - Talk 21:19, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
- I agree, so they should be cited of deleted. Its the other editers ball now. Enlil Ninlil (talk) 07:55, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
- Portions mentioning the "other problems included" , "Most economists have blasted the move as merely political.", and "The implements and cattle are to be used to buy votes in the 2008 election." have been deleted. [[User:Stannard|Stannard] (talk) 09:00, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Banknotes used
So can we remove the issue under 1 million dollars? Given the exchange rate is 200 million to U.S.$1. Enlil Ninlil (talk) 03:31, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
- I have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised if they're not still in use, in big bricks. Like this picture: http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/images/stories/bread.jpg from less than a month ago, when it was somewhere around Z$50 million to the US$, so each of the bills individually were less than a US cent. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that such bundles were still found Nik42 (talk) 04:32, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
- That kid was having fun, but those bundles might still be around. Enlil Ninlil (talk) 05:09, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
Is there any reason why we keep getting edits replacing banknotes right down to 1 cent when those are no longer valid by the expiry date printed thereon?
I know a few notes earlier on were /officially/ permitted to extend beyond their expiry date and if someone can provide a history of those, fair enough, but repeatedly listing every expired note down to 1 cent reads more as deliberate mockery of the country than a list of actual, current, valid banknotes. (If this exercise was repeated on other country's pages, could be fairly sure of a negative response, I'd've thought). Cheers, David. Harami2000 (talk) 00:43, 17 May 2008 (UTC)
- I agree. It seems to be mostly one or two users who keep restoring those older denominations. Nik42 (talk) 04:27, 17 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Official exchange rates
Now the Z$ is floating, there are meaningful exchange rates posted on www.rbz.co.zw, they do seem to be slightly lower than the black market rates (which makes sense - things always sell at a premium on black markets), but they're not far off. Should we switch to reporting those rather than the black market, or a combination of the two? I'm not sure why the black market still exists... is it not possible to actually get currency on the official market? --Tango (talk) 16:16, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
- As I understand it, there are restrictions on who can get foreign currency and how much you can get at any one time. Nik42 (talk) 18:57, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Actual exchange rates vs. need for newspaper sources
I've been keeping tabs on http://www.siyabonga-tatenda.com/zimmoney.html to sanity-check newspaper-sourced figures, albeit the pound vs. US dollar to Zimbabwe dollar exchange rates are usually distorted in favor of the pound sterling owing to the location of the company. Unfortunately this site's page is still not archived on http://www.archive.org.
While awaiting a better (permanent) weblink I've utilised this quoted rate for the first time here, just now, as the other rate posted for today is clearly out-of-date already.
In the last few weeks, this site has provided interim steps where there are large breaks in the sequence on wikipedia, but I neglected to add those in "temporarily", albeit in retrospect those might have been useful for historical reference purposes.
Trust that makes some sense, anyhow. Regards, David. Harami2000 (talk) 23:07, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
- Just a footnote to the above for future reference to clarify exchange rates from http://www.siyabonga-tatenda.com/zimmoney.html (probably just as well started using these as a matter of habit) as being derived from a UK-based company and thus slightly disadvantageous to money transfers sent in US$.
- e.g. Tomorrow morning's (7th June 2008) rate is 2.601 billion ZWD per US$ vs. 5.3 billion ZWD per UK£. Applying xe.com's current "live rate" of 1.00 USD = 0.507814 GBP would yield 2.691 billion ZWD extrapolated per US$. (The "gap" has been larger than this over the past couple of weeks).
- Also, aside, for future ref., the http://www.siyabonga-tatenda.com/zimmoney.html quotes are for mid-range (£50 to £1,500) transactions. d. Harami2000 (talk) 16:54, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
Interesting quote, aside, albeit using the single source above for daily comparative exchange rates may have advantages at present, giving the market turbulance.
"http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/jun6b_2008.html "Zim Independent, Business. Thursday, 05 June 2008 21:59
"THE fragile Zimbabwe dollar this week crashed to a record $1 billion against the US dollar as it become apparent that the new foreign currency liberalisation regime had failed to stabilise the local currency.
Six weeks have passed since the Reserve Bank floated the exchange rate under the willing buyer, willing seller twinning arrangement.
This week all four foreign exchange markets were trading at above $1 billion dollars for one US dollar, as demand far outstripped supply in the foreign exchange-starved market.
The four markets are the Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR), the official interbank, the cash parallel market and Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS).
The OMIR rate closed Tuesday at $1 746 899 809 after having opened trading at Monday's rate of $967 480 942. The OMIR rate is used by some companies to do business transactions and track the true value of the Zimbabwean dollar.
The rate surged even further on Wednesday when it rose to an unprecedented high of $3,9 billion before registering a slight decline to close at $3 047 030 834 last night. It is expected to surge next week.
The official interbank rate surpassed a billion dollars yesterday with most banks trading slightly above the mark. ABC Bank was trading at $1,1 billion for the US dollar while ZABG and Standard Chartered were just over $1 billion.
A handful of banks were trading at slightly below the $1 billion mark by midday yesterday but were poised to exceed the barrier by close of day.
Kingdom Bank was buying the greenback at $995 million and selling at $1 099 000 000 while Stanbic was buying at $990 million and selling at $992 million.
The two thriving parallel markets could not be matched by the interbank system and still held its lead throughout the week. On the cash parallel market, dealers were buying the US dollar at rates between $1,1 billion and $1,2 billion yesterday. Parallel market dealers on the RTGS market were buying the US dollar at $1,8 billion yesterday.
The RTGS rate for Tuesday was $1,2 billion before rising to Wednesday's rate of $1,6 billion."
(aside: the very next news article on that page quotes "There are no signs of the rate stabilising and economists contend that the rate could very well be above $2 billion by June 27". Missed by a bit... :/ ) d. Harami2000 (talk) 17:03, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
Siyabonga Tatenda according to their website is a small money transfer company based in a rural part of the UK (Suffolk). The rates they quote for issue of Z$ cash notes seem to be much greater than rates available from other conventional foreign exchange information sources (Reuters, Bloomberg, Oanda, XE, OMIR, etc) which is surprising given banks are free to quote non-official rates. Can we get some sort of verification that the rates quoted are genuine and publish this source on wikipedia ? It seems like wikipedia is just quoting the highest available rate each day which may not necessarily be valid. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.137.1.99 (talk) 11:16, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
- I've asked for additional confirmation, but contrary to the observation that their quoted rates are "much greater" than all the others including the OMIR rate, you can see in the previous (17:03, 6 June 2008) newsclip I've added above that the OMIR rate was actually /greater/ for that timeframe. Unfortunately, there is no consistent feed on OMIR data and to swap back and forward between different rates and/or uncertain newspaper clippings might possibly do more damage to retention of a permanent record here. Siyabonga-Tatenda was the "best"/"closest tracking" option I could find for real-time rates when spending a good few hours looking around for a source to use as a "sanity checker" for any other rates cited.
- 02c only, anyhow, and if anyone /has/ a consistent feed to a *true* market value rate on a daily basis, I'd love to know about that. Harami2000 (talk) 19:46, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Valuable work-- thank you!
I've found this article incredibly useful. The money supply explosion documented here must be the prime cause of the Zimbabwean hyperinflation, a point lost or obfuscated in all too many political discussions. WP articles on Zimbabwe would benefit from more links to this article and its references. Jeremy Tobacman (talk) 20:59, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

