Zimbabwe – The Story behind the 100 Trillion Dollar Note

 This is the definition of inflation! The one hundred trillion dollar note has been one of my biggest selling notes for several reasons. Many people who buy Zimbabwean currency love to hear the story behind the history of the notes, so I figured I will share with all of you as well! There are 103 notes in the Zimbabwe set. (See my blog post Zimbabwe Banknotes. The Complete Listing from 1 Cent to 100 Trillion Dollars for a catalog of all available Zimbabwe banknotes). Can you believe at one time they started with a 1 cent note?!?

The 1 cent note was released in 2006 as well as a 5¢, 10¢ and 50¢ note. Could you imagine having a one cent note? What could you buy?!! I think it is fascinating!! Before these cent notes were put in circulation there were bearer cheques that were used.

Other notes in this series included:$1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100.

Then came: $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000, $250,000, $500,000, $750,000, $1,000,000.

After 1 million came: 5 million,10 million, 25 million, 50 million, 100 million, 250 million, 500 million, 1 billion, 5 billion, 25 billion, 50 billion, and 100 billion.

This is the part of the story where the government took a step back and said, “whoa, hang on what is going on here!?”  They decided to scrap the whole lot and start all over again. So in 2007 they created a new set starting with the “new” one dollar bill:

This new (and most famous) series included: $1, $5, $10, $20, $100, $500 $1,000 $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, $100,000, $500,000, $1,000,000.

Then you have:10 million, 50 million, 100 million, 200 million, 500 million, 1 billion, 5 billion, 10 billion, 20 billion, 50 billion, 10 trillion, 20 trillion, 50 trillion and of course the 100 trillion dollars!

Again after this inflation was causing mad chaos the government again thought okay, “lets scrap this idea and start over.” After all a billion dollars probably wouldn’t have bought you a carton of eggs! This was the again “new” one dollar bill the fourth one dollar note to be introduced to Zimbabwe, basically removing 12 zero’s from the 100 trillion and making it now equal to $1.

This 2009 series included: $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 and $500. After the issuing of the $500 note, however, the Zimbabwean government gave up for a while and abandoned their currency and primarily used the U.S dollar or the South African rand. In 2016 they started issuing a new series but only got 2 notes in ($2 and $5) and and decided it wasn’t working so they stopped producing notes until 2019.

This new series (2019/2020) includes the $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.

I have my collection of Zimbabwe notes available to see and purchase on my web site.

I love the rare history behind these amazing notes, think about the people in Zimbabwe who were being paid every day in trillions of dollars and by the next day their money was worth only half what it was the night before. It’s actually very sad to think about. These next picture are not my own but ones that I found online and wanted to share, to show how severe the inflation situation was.

I think these pictures have their own stories to tell.