Early Transactions in Denial
ZIM15, 2003, 1,000 ZWD

Slot Comment:

S/N: 0017747 Redeemed: Mar 2004

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Note Details

  

Set Details
Note Description: 1000 Dollars ND (2003)
Grade: 64 EPQ
Country: Zimbabwe
Note Number: ZIM15
Signatures/
Vignettes: 		- Wmk: Zimbabwe Bird
Certification #: 8085735-001
Owner: Revenant
Set Category: World
Set Name: Early Transactions in Denial
Slot Name: ZIM15, 2003, 1,000 ZWD
Research: See PMG's Census Report for this Note

Owner's Description

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.

This check was dated 02-03-2004, lining up with the 02 Mar 2004 stamp it got from Teller 2 at the Victoria Falls Branch at the Metropolitan Bank of Zimbabwe. It was stamped as PAID by the RBZ just 6 days later on 08 Mar 2004, suggesting that some people were still interested in redeeming these and flipping them for whatever minimal value they must have still had at that point in time. They weren’t worthless by 2004, they were just close to it. Interestingly, this is another example where the seller stamped this on the front and back. There’s a lot of variability and how these things were stamped and handled by different banks, branches, and maybe even tellers, which can give each one of these cancelled checks their own character.

But there is a snarky part of me that wonders - how did the value of this check at redemption compare to the cost of the ink from the ink pad or self-inking stamp that someone had to use to stamp and process it? Was this thing even worth the ink used to stamp it?

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