Gradually, Then Suddenly
ZIM43, 2006, 500 ZWN

Slot Comment:

2nd Dollar Emergency Bearer Check AG Prefix

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Note Details

  

Set Details
Note Description: 500 Dollars 2006 - Wmk: Zimbabwe Bird
Grade: 66 EPQ
Country: Zimbabwe
Note Number: ZIM43
Signatures/
Vignettes: 		- Sign. #8
Certification #: 8046920-055
Owner: Revenant
Set Category: World
Set Name: Gradually, Then Suddenly
Slot Name: ZIM43, 2006, 500 ZWN
Research: See PMG's Census Report for this Note

Owner's Description

The 2nd dollar bearer checks are a very major part of the overall Zimbabwe note set. With 28 notes, they are the single largest set / series in the run of Zimbabwean notes and make up over 25% of the notes from ZIM1 to ZIM104 (as of 2021).

This is a bit unfortunate in that these are some of the most plain-looking, least visually striking series in the broader collection of notes (at least in my opinion). This is probably why I was a bit slow to incorporate these notes into my collection – the 3rd, 4th, and especially the 1st dollars are a lot more interesting to look at. Nevertheless, they are a very important part of the story of this set and this currency, and I love that story, so it is important to have these notes represented.

Something you'll notice as you look at these notes / bearer checks is that a remarkable sameness settles over the entire series. With the first dollars each note tends to have a very different look and feel to it. The emergency check issues of the 1st and 2nd dollars and notes in the 3rd and 4th dollar series, as far as the major design elements go, look the same and just have different numbers. The colors tend to change with each denomination, which makes it easier to tell them apart when dealing with large numbers of bills as the people of Zimbabwe were often forced to do. This is very true of both the 2nd dollar bearer checks series and the 3rd dollar banknotes. With the 2nd dollar bearer checks and 3rd dollar notes they usually changed the image(s) on the back with each new denomination, but they frequently reused images / artwork, both from prior series of notes (especially the 1st dollars’ artwork getting reused with the 2nd dollars) and from prior issues within the same series. With the 2nd dollar agro checks they pretty much just changed the denomination / numbers and the color and did not even bother to change the design on the back with each note.

With 1 ZWN being worth 1000 ZWD, this note was valued at 500,000 ZWD, making it the first 2nd Dollar Bearer Check that was worth more (after conversion) than any of the emergency issues released before the 1st dollar was retired.

Where the balancing rocks are a major design feature on the front of the banknotes, with the checks of this series they appear only as part of the seal of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

On the back, the bearer checks of this series feature different designs, emphasizing things of national or cultural significance, much like the first dollar banknotes that came before them. In that regard, these bearer checks are a bit of a cross between the bearer checks and the banknotes of the first dollars in terms of design.

This note features the same artwork of the tiger fish and the Kariba dam that appears on the ZIM1, 2-dollar, 1st dollar banknote. That artwork also appears on the 10 million dollar (ZIM55) and 500 million dollar (ZIM60) bearer checks. This artwork also reappears in the 4th dollar series on the 5-dollar notes (ZIM93).

The Kariba Dam is a double curvature concrete arch dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The dam stands 128 meters (420 feet) tall and 579 meters (1,900 feet) long. The dam forms Lake Kariba which extends for 280 kilometers (170 miles) and holds 185 cubic kilometers (150,000,000 acre-ft) of water. It was designed by Coyne et Bellier and constructed between 1955 and 1959 by Impresit of Italy at a cost of $135,000,000 for the first stage with only the Kariba South power cavern. Final construction and the addition of the Kariba North Power cavern by Mitchell Construction was not completed until 1977 due to largely political problems for a total cost of $480,000,000. During construction, 86 men lost their lives.

The name “tigerfish” can refer to more than one species of fish. The species native to Lake Kariba is Hydrocynus vittatus. They are prized as game fish and for trophy hunting. Even though they come from different zoological families the Tigerfish is considered the African equivalent of the South American piranha and it seems an apt comparison. The fish are muscular, aggressive, group-hunting predators with interlocking, razor-sharp teeth. They are the first freshwater fish recorded and confirmed to catch birds in flight. Frankly, they look nasty and unpleasant. The note brags this up by showing the fish jumping from the water with its teeth out.

This is one of five notes I got for Christmas in 2019 – the last set of additions in a year that became dedicated to building this set into what I had always dreamed and believed it could be.

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