looking for some zimbabwean bank notes

acurno

Hi All,
I'm teaching economics in school and would love to get my hand on a big wad of zimbabwean bank notes from a few years back to show the effects of hyperinflation. Notes on ebay are well pricey. 70 bucks for 100 notes which at the time were worth pennies against the dollar.
Anyone got some ideas or recommendations for other websites other than ebay that I might be able to pick up a few bundles?

barneysplash

Hello there

If you're going to talk about hyperinflation, you'll have to mention
Post World War I Germany. How the German currency became worthlessas a result of the Versaille Treaty, The Great Depression, a series of weak governments and the war reparations Germany was forced to pay.

Quite apt in our own era of crippling foreign dept.:)

Having to exchange a wheelbarrow full of notes for a loaf of bread
burned a deep scar into the national psyche of Germans. A great respect
for a stable currency was created in Germany - the Deutschmark was
very special to the German people, they were quite reluctant to part with
it to make way for the Euro. As a fond farewell, the German Central Bank issued a
pure gold commemerative Mark in 2001 before the Euro started in 2002.

I have a 100,000 mark note from the 1920s, you can pick them up easily enough.

If you can't get any I could scan you a picture of my one - I doubt they're bound by copywrite law

acurno

Ah yea that'd always be one of the other examples as well as the hyperinflation in Hungary. Recent examples are always better though. WW2 is in the history books, and for some kids, that's as far back as when the pyramids were built. Had one girl surprised when I told her her grandfather would have lived through WW2. She was literally open mouthed as she thought it was thousands of years ago. Unreal.

Got a good deal off some punter on ebay. 100 trillion dollar notes on the way...

barneysplash

I always loved the example my Economics teacher used to
explain price elasticity - Drug addiction. How someone will
not do without something no matter what the price.

You learn a lot of rubbish in school, but Economics was always
so useful and relevant.

I'd really try to push the whole historical aspect - up
until the Berlin wall came down in 1989, the end World War 2
was the last major milestone in world history.

I mean the lines that were drawn by NATO vs Warsaw Pact countries
continue to shape our world. If anything, time has shown that
ideology comes and goes but economics are forever.

Anyway, good to hear you got some bank notes.
In a shop a few weeks ago I saw one of them 100 Trillion
Dollar notes in a frame with "In case of emergency break glass!" written on it.

Here's a great video where a guy tries to spend one of them, in an
effort to explain the eternal value of precious metals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK6aQ_T6jTE

citizen_p

hope you got a good deal, this guy is selling them for $7.50 a pop. I have bought stuff off him before, great service at an excellent price.