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| Slot: |
1,000 Dollars ZIM15 |
| Item: |
Zimbabwe, Reserve Bank "Emergency Issue"
1000 Dollars ND (2003) |
| Grade: |
PMG 65 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
8074632-085
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Owner Comments
The thing that makes the P-15, $1000 checks particularly interesting is that they are for $1000. By 2003 the country had the P-12, $1000 banknote. The Cargill Bearer checks excluded a $1000 denomination and only had $5000 (P-13) and $10000 (P-14). The 2003 Bearer checks (P-21 to P-23) also exclude a $1000 denomination. What the existence of P-15 suggests, what I can only assume, is that they were having a hard time printing enough of the P-12 banknotes to meet market needs for a while and they had to make these to fill the gap.
With regard to this example / specimen, it was stamped as “PAID” on Oct 26, 2004 (which happens to be just a week after my birthday, the year I turned 18). It was also marked as “Zimbank Waste” on “11-10-2004,” which, since Zimbabwe apparently dates things like the UK does, this most likely means October 11th 2004. This is a bit surprising to me because this stamp seems to have been placed after the Oct 26th stamp and it just doesn’t make much sense for me for this have been stamped as “Waste” before it was stamped as “PAID” - and this is the only one of the 13 I own now that has a “Waste” stamp. In any case, these late 2004 dates - and other notes I’ve seen with dates into early to mid-2005 - show that these checks were still in use well after 2003. But these checks still have the signature of the Acting Governor from 2003, not the signature of Dr Gideon Gono, who would have been running things by that point.
How something that was redeemed and stamped as waste to be discarded came to be in my collection and encapsulated in gem uncirc condition is a bit of a mystery to me but... it happened somehow! Somebody kept the trash I guess – possibly foreseeing that one day there would be people like me with an interest in these things, and they kept trash paper and turned it into something that I later paid about US$40 for 16 years later. Life is funny sometimes that way, I guess.
Some of the things I find interesting here is some of what is NOT on it. The “Date” line is blank, so they did not bother to date it when it was issued to someone. The name of the person it was issued to was also left blank and, even though you were supposed to have to show ID to redeem these, there is no redemption signature on the check. So, there is no record of when it was issued, or to who, or who it was that redeemed it – at least not on the check itself.
That information might have been retained at the Chisipite Sub-Branch in Harare, which is apparently where this check was stamped as waste, but I have a feeling the answer is “No.” My guess is, based on all the blanks, at least by this point in late 2004, they were just dealing with a ton of these increasingly worthless $1,000 checks and they were doing things “fast and loose” to process them all faster. By the time this thing was redeemed, $1,000 in Zimbabwe dollars was barely worth an American quarter or dime – so who would have even cared? It would not have even bought you bread probably.
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| Slot: |
5,000 Dollars ZIM16 |
| Item: |
Zimbabwe, Reserve Bank "Emergency Issue"
5000 Dollars ND (2003) |
| Grade: |
PMG 63 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
8085761-002
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Owner Comments
With regard to this example / specimen, it is dated 05-12-2003, which I think means Dec 5th, 2003. Based on the date convention I think they use (the UK D-M-Y standard). This seems supported by the stamps. The check was stamped 05-12-2003 at - if I’m reading this right - the ForEx desk of the Standard Chartered Bank of Zimbabwe’s Avondale, Harare Branch. It is stamped as PAID on 08 Dec 2003 by the RBZ in Harare. These are the same dates and stamps as are on the P-17 (8085735-003) and the P-18 (8085735-004) in this set and those two notes seem to have been issued to and redeemed by the same person - just not the same person that had this P-16.
This gives these three notes in this series a very fun, cool, bit of shared history. But, while it is fun and cool, I can’t really say it is too surprising, given that I bought all of these from the same seller, who most likely got them in large batch a number of years ago.
These three checks then were probably issued and redeemed just 3 days later. The gap between issuance and redemption on a lot of these seems to have been very short, but I think that makes sense during a time of turmoil and rapid inflation. People knew not to let these things sit too long.
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| Slot: |
10,000 Dollars ZIM17 |
| Item: |
Zimbabwe, Reserve Bank "Emergency Issue"
10,000 Dollars ND (2003) |
| Grade: |
PMG 66 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
8085735-003
|
Owner Comments
With regard to this example / specimen, it is dated 05-12-2003, which I think means Dec 5th, 2003. Based on the date convention I think they use (the UK D-M-Y standard). This seems supported by the stamps. The check was stamped 05-12-2003 at - if I’m reading this right - the ForEx desk of the Standard Chartered Bank of Zimbabwe’s Avondale, Harare Branch. It is stamped as PAID on 08 Dec 2003 by the RBZ in Harare. These are the same dates and stamps as are on the P-16 (8085761-002) and the P-18 (8085735-004) in this set. This P-17 and the P-18 seem to have been issued to and redeemed by the same person - just not the same person that had the P-16.
This gives these three notes in this series a very fun, cool, bit of shared history. But, while it is fun and cool, I can’t really say it is too surprising, given that I bought all of these from the same seller, who most likely got them in large batch a number of years ago.
These three checks then were probably issued and redeemed just 3 days later. The gap between issuance and redemption on a lot of these seems to have been very short, but I think that makes sense during a time of turmoil and rapid inflation. People knew not to let these things sit too long.
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| Slot: |
20,000 Dollars ZIM18 |
| Item: |
Zimbabwe, Reserve Bank "Emergency Issue"
20,000 Dollars ND (2003) |
| Grade: |
PMG 65 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
2086014-041
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Owner Comments
The stamps were not inked or pressed very well when this particular example was cancelled so I can't make out what branch or location it was stamped at, I can just see that it was cancelled in Harare in mid-October 2004.
My wife got me this note as part of my father's day present in 2022, after I'd linked her to it as one of a number of ideas she could consider since she was looking for ideas. This example graded higher than the examples I'd submitted myself, which had graded 63EPQ and 64EPQ. So with this 65EPQ note, I guess I'm working on a stairstep set of grades. I guess we'll see if someone gets a 66EPQ down the road on one of these and I look to upgrade again, or if a 62EPQ pops up and I decide to buy it for giggles.
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| Slot: |
50,000 Dollars ZIM19 |
| Item: |
Zimbabwe, Reserve Bank "Emergency Issue"
50,000 Dollars ND (2003) |
| Grade: |
PMG 66 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
8085761-005
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Owner Comments
With regard to this particular example, the dates are a bit confusing. Many of these are dated with pen and stamped with the same date initially. This check, on the other hand has a date of 16/09/03 in pen on the line, but the stamp indicates 18 Sep 2003, at the Samnujoma St Branch in Harare for the “Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe, Limited” - stamped by Teller 4. Adding to my confusion, the back of the note is stamped ZIMBANK Teller 5, First Street, Harare… but dated on 15 Sep 2003 - before the date on the line on the front. I’m not sure what the story is there.
What makes this example a little more interesting to me is that it is stamped as PAID by the RBZ in Harare on 18 Oct 2003 - which happens to have been the day before my 17th birthday. Interestingly, I’ve seen three examples of these now with stamps for 18 Oct, in either 2003 or 2004, but I’ve never seen one stamped on the 19th of October, and I have no clue why.
But that set of stamps and dates puts a solid month between when this was issued and when it was paid / redeemed. That’s a lot longer than the gap I see on many of the others in this group. But this note was redeemed 6 months after those march examples. I’m wondering if, by October 2003, these had lost so much value that people just weren’t caring about redeeming them as much.
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| Slot: |
100,000 Dollars ZIM20 |
| Item: |
Zimbabwe, Reserve Bank "Emergency Issue"
100,000 Dollars ND (2003) |
| Grade: |
PMG 65 EPQ |
| Cert #: |
8085761-006
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Owner Comments
With regard to this particular example, the date on the line in blue ink seems to be 11-11-03, with the check being stamped 12 Nov 2003 at the Kingdom Bank’s “Flagship” location in Harare, by Teller 3. It was stamped as PAID by the RBZ on 22 Nov 2003. I joked with my wife that this note just misses her mother’s Nov 13th birthday just like several examples have missed my Oct 19th birthday by just a day. Close, but no cigar!
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