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Gradually, Then Suddenly
Gas Ration Coupons

Previous: ZIM12b, 2003, 1,000 ZWD | Next: ZIM15, 2003, 1,000 ZWD

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Slot Comment:

Commodity-Backed Pseudo-Currency

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Note Details

Set Details

Note Description:	5 Dollars 2009
Grade:	64 EPQ
Country:	Zimbabwe
Note Number:	ZIM93
Signatures/ Vignettes:	- Sign. #8
Certification #:	8051666-094
Owner:	Revenant

Set Category:	World
Set Name:	Gradually, Then Suddenly
Slot Name:	Gas Ration Coupons
Research:	See PMG's Census Report for this Note

Owner's Description

It has been a little difficult for me to precisely date these gas coupons. Some sources suggest they were around in 2004. I’ve seen a scan of at least one of these - a 20 litre AMBY coupon - that was stamped in Jun 2005. But they were definitely out and in circulation before the 2nd dollar series released and they were still present in one form or another as of mid-2008, when the 2nd redenomination and 3rd dollar was announced - Which means they both pre-dated and out-lasted the 2nd dollar bearer checks series in circulation and use. This makes them a bit difficult to place in this set, especially since there’s more than one type of some of the RBZ issued coupons and it’s not clear to me when each of these designs was in print / in use.

Articles from mid-2008 show that, with confidence in the national currency (mostly the 1st and 2nd dollars) increasingly low, people were trading these coupons as a kind of commodity-backed pseudo-currency that was redeemable for fuel. I’ve seen contemporary articles showing them as being accepted as payment in auctions and that they were being traded at an exchange rate to the US dollar of 1 liter to US$1, because that was about what fuel was going for in US dollars at the time. So, while they do not have pick numbers in the catalogue and are not officially currency or banknotes, they were very much functioning as a parallel currency that was often issued by the central bank at the same time as the official national currency (whichever one they were printing at that moment in time).