Zimbabwe abandons its currency

Source: BBC

Zimbabweans will be allowed to conduct business in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwe dollar, in an effort to stem the country's runaway inflation.

The announcement was made by acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa.

BBC southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says the Zimbabwean dollar has become a laughing stock. A Z$100 trillion note was recently introduced.

Until now only licensed businesses could accept foreign currencies, although it was common practice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7859033.stm

for worst hyperinflation, easily beating out 1945 Hungary (1 trillion paper forint = 1 gold forint from 1931) and 1990s Yugoslavia (which ended up printing notes with denominations of up to 500,000,000 dinars.

I guess that also means that the Zimbabwe dollar coin I have from the 1990s now has a cash value of less than one Betty Crocker trading stamp.

:)

Out of this bleak picture, one bright spot is that they happen to be next to an African country -- actually several African countries -- with stable currencies. The South African Rand, while weak, is pretty universal in southern Africa. The Botswana Pula is also stable.

It will take literally hours for everything to be switched into Rands because from what my Zimbabwean friends say, most transactions are already being done in Rands.

When you have to pay the government in Zim dollars or do some other non-black market transaction, you go to a black market money trader with your Rands or dollars or Pula, and they give you shopping carts full of Zim dollars, but that's pretty much the only thing they are for.