Zimbabwe Dollar VS Zig for collectors

Zimbabwean dollar notes ceased circulating to introduce the new gold-backed Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mushayavanhu unveiled the new currency on April 5, giving the public 21 days to exchange their old, inflation-battered Zimbabwean dollar notes for the ZiG.

So since the Zimbabwe Dollar went out of circulation I was wondering about your thoughts on increase on buying Zimbabwe banknotes. 

Maybe they will disappear ?

Happy collecting.

Chris

I don’t think that the old currency will be disappearing from the collector’s market any time soon, similar to how you can still easily get notes from Venezuela’s past currencies in UNC condition.

I would wait a short while before springing on these new Zimbabwean notes. In an ideal world, it will be a stable currency and you could buy the notes as soon as they hit the market, but in reality, it is very possible that the currency will decrease as Zimbabwe’s have in the past. I’m not going to be looking to get my hands on them until the currency proves itself to me that it is a stable currency or the point in time that it drops like crazy.

Chris,

   Zimbabwe's older banknotes remain popular with collectors.

The ZiG is a currency that is doomed to fail.

I have not seen any ZiG notes or coins being offered for sale up on eBay - which is very strange.

Aidan.

Hello,

Thank you both on the replies, I really love Zimbabwe banknotes especially the Trillion ones that I try to collect as many as possible but the prices for the UNC versions have increased a lot. I totally agree about the ZIG currency that is indeed doomed to fail. 

In your opinion which countries banknotes are best for collectors that want to make profit from them ? 

I personally collect Greek, Iranian, Zimbabwe and Samoa banknotes but since I am relatively new in banknotes collecting (almost a year) I am looking for criteria that showing an increase in value. In general small countries I think are the best since not so many are printed but what else a new collector can keep in mind ?

Thank you in advance.

Chris

Welcome to Numista Chris!

Ahkai started a thread on some of his notes from Zimbabwe & a few of us chipped in on  this thread.  Like Idolenz, I remember seeing the 100 Trillion notes being offered for about (or less than) $10 each if you bought a 3 note lot from Banknote World.  (These were the guys who marketed the 100 Trillion aggressively).  Banknote World also sold bundles (or stacks) of 100 of these UNC notes & I guess they took off due to social media hype/popularity.  Popularity is one factor which will influence any note's Book Value (the BV may be one thing but its another thing to actually get $ XX for a particular note as you have to sell it & usually pay a premium to the online platform or LCS).  Personally, I think these are passing fads & would rather put my money on a note from Rhodesia (which are far more challenging to find in UNC). 

The other factor tends to be how tough a note is & its condition. Generally, we see high grade UNC notes appreciate the quickest & some nations fare better than others. I'm not a speculator so I cannot really comment on what I think will be the next big hit.  In the past, I've purchased a few lots which featured Queen Eliazabeth II & these have gone up (in popularity since QEII passed away). 

I don't really speculate on what a note will be worth in the future since so many local/global factors (wars, our economy, value of the dollar, social media trends, etc) weigh in on how much you will get for a particular note. 

Here's a link to another thread on “What is collecting to you?” which you may find interesting since it means different things to different folks. 

Happy hunting!

Hello Serial Number 8 and thank you for your responce.

I read the threads you mentioned and they were both very interesting. My question was not only if we could predict which banknotes will get an increase on their value but also which countries are the most popular among banknotes collectors. In the related Numista forum thread I was amazed that most people saying about German banknotes which I personally don't find special. I prefer Africa but again this is a matter of what each individual likes to collect.

I saw the Rhodesia banknotes you mentioned and they are so beautiful !!!! When I have spare money I will definitely purchase a few of them. I also read that Rhodesia was a small territory of Zimbabwe and I was amazed, because banknotes collecting has so much interesting information except from the collecting itself. 

I hope to be able to travel to Africa anytime soon and grab some by their local banks since I read that every traveller from the EU, as an individual, is allowed to carry in his personal languages up to 10K of cash worth money. For more I will have to declare them but no 10K is already a lot.

Regards,

Chris

I'm glad you found some of the links interesting Chris. 

On my hobby site, Notaphilyc Culture “Collector's Corner” page, I often discuss what makes certain nations & series popular.  Some of the reasons are logical (a shortened series like the 1993 Eastern Caribbean States flawed designs), they were just challenging to find in high grade (most older African/Asian nations with high humidity), or they prefer nations which had revolutions (renamed) like Rhodesia (& many colonies).  Sometimes, there's no rhyme nor reason to what people collect (just good marketing), but generally some patterns do emerge. The following are few trends that I have noticed:

Most World collectors crave notes which have attractive designs & the larger the format (paper size) the better.  I think that is why early German & Russian notes (which can be quite large) have been popular.  Most World collectors (like any 1 nation-only collector) appreciate a note with good eye appeal so the higher the grade, the more desirable too.  Some also seek colourful designs that reflect the culture (or history) of a nation over kings & queens. QEII nations have been popular for some folks but there are also those who pursue certain themes (technology, transportation, artists, animals) while others may collect by substrate (only paper or only polymer) in high grade.  I guess it depends on what makes a nice set (for those who come from a coin background).

One thing that I found surprising was that a lot of World collectors don't care about special serial numbers (radars, Million # notes, repeaters) compared to Canadian, British, or American collectors.  However, super low # (like under 10) or solid radars (8888888) will turn heads. There are a lot who value first prefixes (like AA) or no prefixes (like seen on Spanish first issued notes). It does make sense for those nations who issue many prefixes & each prefix only having 1,000,000 (or small sized) runs.  And yes, small countries, with limited quantities issued, can also be popular.  I hope that helps!