Gradually, Then Suddenly
ZIM79, 2008, 50 Million ZWR

Slot Comment:

3rd Dollar Banknote AA Prefix - $50,000,000

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Note Details

  

Set Details
Note Description: 50 Million Dollars 2008
Grade: 66 EPQ
Country: Zimbabwe
Note Number: ZIM79
Signatures/
Vignettes: 		- Sign. #8
Certification #: 8046945-001
Owner: Revenant
Set Category: World
Set Name: Gradually, Then Suddenly
Slot Name: ZIM79, 2008, 50 Million ZWR
Research: See PMG's Census Report for this Note

Owner's Description

The release of this banknote was announced on 3 Dec 2008.

About a week before this note and its cohorts (ZIM78 and ZIM80) were released a Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal ruled on 28 Nov 2008 that the expropriation of farms from 78 farmers (see P-5 descriptions for more on the land seizure program and its consequences) was illegal. However, none of the countries that are part of the SADC were willing to do anything to enforce the ruling and the response from the Mugabe government, per a January 2009 article from the South African “Digital Journal,” was to send men out to assault 5 of the farmers that participated in the suit. The article from the Digital Journal also cites an example where a 400-hectare farm was seized and the government allowed all but 5 hectares of it to sit fallow and unused, which probably goes a long way towards explaining why agricultural production dropped by over 40% after the farm expropriations started.

The Zimbabwe regular banknotes feature an image of the Chiremba balancing rock formation - three balancing rocks that are in Matobo National Park. The image of the stones was chosen as a metaphor for balancing development and environmental protection following the country’s transition from white-ruled Rhodesia to the majority black ruled Zimbabwe. The Matobo Hills are composed entirely of granite and it makes for some unique and interesting formations.

The back side of the Trillions Series banknotes all feature a pair of images that have some kind of national, cultural or economic significance to Zimbabwe. These images are different on each denomination though some of the images seem to have been used more than once on different denominations throughout the series.

The 50 Million dollar banknote features an image of an Cape Buffalo (African Buffalo) and an image of the Great Zimbabwe ruins. The Cape Buffalo image was also used on ZIM65 (1 ZWR), ZIM75 (100 000 ZWR), and ZIM91 (100 Trillion). The Cape Buffalo is a popular target for recreational / sport hunting by tourists. Depictions of the Great Zimbabwe Ruins are seen as far back as the 1st dollar, with ZIM8. However, this appears to be artwork introduced with the 3rd dollar series and it was a heavily used fixture of the series. It appears on ZIM69 (100 ZWR) ZIM77 (1 Million ZWR) ZIM78 (10 Million ZWR), ZIM86 (20 Billion ZWR), ZIM87 (50 Billion ZWR), and ZIM88 (10 Trillion ZWR).

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