Banknotes of Zimbabwe
The banknotes of Zimbabwe are the physical forms of Zimbabwean currency, including the dollar and the ZiG. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has issued most of the banknotes and other types of currency notes in its history, including bearer cheques and special agro-cheques that circulated from September 2003 until December 2008, and bond notes from November 2016 until November 2019: Standard Chartered Zimbabwe also circulated their own emergency cheques from June 2003 to September 2004.
The first Zimbabwean banknotes were rolled out for the first dollar between July 1981 an April 1982, and replaced those of the Rhodesian dollar at par: banknotes of the first dollar circulated until August 2006, when they were replaced by bearer cheques of the second dollar due to high inflation. Cheques of the second dollar were itself replaced by banknotes of the third dollar in August 2008, which were itself replaced by those of the fourth dollar in February 2009. The power-sharing government of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai abandoned the Zimbabwean dollar in April 2009, and banknotes of the third and fourth dollars were demonetised in September 2015 after over 6 years of disuse. Zimbabwean banknotes were reintroduced in November 2016, initially in response to a shortage of hard currency.
The main feature on the front of Zimbabwean banknotes is an illustration of the Domboremari near Epworth – one of the many balancing rocks of Zimbabwe: the Domboremari also appeared on bearer and agro-cheques, as part of the Reserve Bank's logo. The back often shows the culture or landmarks of the country. Banknotes issued between September 2008 and April 2009 lacked modern security features, due to sanctions against the Zimbabwean government and the Reserve Bank at the time.
History
The first banknotes of Zimbabwe were issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for the first dollar in 1980 to coincide with the independence of Zimbabwe. These notes replaced the circulating banknotes of the Rhodesian Dollar at par. The first series of banknotes ranged from to, and carried the signature of Dr. Desmond Krogh, then the last Governor of the Reserve Bank of Rhodesia from 1973. From 1994 to 1997 the Reserve Bank issued a new series of notes ranging from to, although the banknote was withdrawn and replaced by a coin in 1997. As rising inflation started to affect the purchasing power of the Zimbabwean Dollar, the and banknotes were issued from 2001 to 2005 with enhanced anti-counterfeiting measures.In May 2003, the Reserve Bank allowed the Cargill Cotton Group to issue emergency bearer cheques to cotton farmers, via a Standard Chartered Zimbabwe branch in Harare: Cargill issued these cheques due to a shortage of money caused by high annual inflation, which according to The Herald, was around 269.2% in June 2003. The Reserve Bank later issued special traveller's cheques on 8 August 2003, with six denominations ranging from to : the traveller's cheques were short-lived and unpopular, because they could only be used once, the user needed to present proof of identification when using the cheques, and the banks levied a commission fee on the use of the cheques.
The Reserve Bank eventually issued their own Bearer cheques on 26 September 2003, with denominations ranging from to. These, and subsequent issues of the first and second dollars were time limited and lacked sophisticated anti-counterfeiting measures which were heavily used in many modern banknotes such as those of the Swiss Franc. In the first half of 2006 new denominations of and were issued, with the million denomination being planned for September 2006; it was subsequently never issued.
The time limits were either ignored or extended by multiple decrees, meaning that all notes of these issues remained legal tender in practice until 21 August 2006.
On 1 August 2006 the banknotes of the second dollar, with less elaborate designs, replaced those of the first dollar at the ratio of 1 000 to 1. The redenomination was heavily publicised under the banner Zero to Hero, but was also rapid and disorganised which resulted in many people being unable to convert their old Bearer cheques to new issues before the lapse date, The Reserve Bank Governor Dr. Gideon Gono said that "10 trillion were still out there and it had become manure".
Further denominations ranging from to million were issued in the period between August 2006 and May 2008 as cent cheques quickly became outmoded. In the second quarter of 2008, special agro-cheques were issued in denominations ranging from billion to billion as the currency exchange rate was floated. Since the functions were similar to Bearer cheques, it was in regular use as prices continue to rise. These cheques also carried time limits and limited security features. In the final months of the second dollar, the cheque was the lowest legal tender denomination by decree, despite having its expiry date extended twice. The Bearer Cheque would have been the lowest legal tender denomination in circulation had the expiry dates of currency cheques been enforced without extension, with the billion agro-cheque being the highest whether or not the note was legal tender.
Munich-based security printers Giesecke & Devrient ceased providing banknote paper to the Reserve Bank on 1 July 2008 in response to an official request from the German government and widespread calls for sanctions; The Jura JSP software end-user licence, issued to the state-owned Fidelity Printers & Refiners was also terminated on 24 July 2008 for similar reasons although the official press statement quoted that it was de facto impossible to prevent the printers from using the software.
On 1 August 2008 the banknotes of the third dollar, which were printed for the abandoned second phase of the 2006 redenomination, replaced the cheques of the second dollar at the ratio of 10 billion to 1. The bearer and agro-cheques of the second dollar were phased out along with the smaller denominations of the third dollar on 1 January 2009. Despite the reform, the Reserve Bank issued several high-value denominations up to trillion in the period between September 2008 to January 2009, which merely kept in similar pace with the cash rate instead of the black market rates.
On 2 February 2009, banknotes of the fourth dollar were introduced to replace those of the third dollar at the ratio of one trillion to 1. It was originally envisaged that banknotes of the third dollar would remain legal tender until 30 June 2009 but all banknotes were withdrawn from circulation following the suspension of the Zimbabwe dollar on 12 April 2009.
Banknotes of the first dollar (1981–2006)
The obverse of the first two series of banknotes featured a dominant motif of the Domboremari, surrounded by trees: the notes also featured major landmarks and landscapes on either side, such as the Kariba Dam and fauna. When high inflation escalated at the end of the 20th century, the quality of the notes deteriorated as printing plates from previous issues were reconstituted for printing emergency notes. Although sustained high inflation forced regular banknotes out of practical use, all banknotes and bearer cheques of the first dollar remained legal tender until the Reserve Bank demonetised them on 21 August 2006.1980 banknote series
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe prepared the first series of banknotes for the newly-independent country in 1980, and released them into circulation in stages, from 15 April 1981 to 14 April 1982. The 1980 series consisted of four denominations: $2, $5, $10 and $20 – and made extensive use of the Guilloché technique, a security feature common on many banknotes from the 1980s. The watermark consisted of a profile view of the Zimbabwe Bird, but the final batches of $2 and $5 notes, both dated 1994, had a ¾ view of the bird with a longer neck. The colour scheme also changed from the Rhodesian notes: the $2 note changed from red to blue, $5 from brown to green, $10 from grey to red, and the $20 note that debuted with this series was navy blue.Banknotes dated 1980 bore Salisbury as the name of Zimbabwe's capital, which renamed itself to Harare on 18 April 1982: $5, $10 and $20 notes dated 1982 and later bore the updated name, but early batches of $10 notes dated 1982 erroneously bore the capital's old name. There were no $2 notes dated 1982: those dated 1983 and later had the updated name of the capital. Notes dated 1980 and 1982 carried the signature of Desmond Krogh, the last governor of the Reserve Bank of Rhodesia, and governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe until 1983: notes dated 1983 had the signature of Kombo James Moyana, and notes dated 1994 had the signature of Leonard Tsumba.
1994 banknote series
From 1994 to 1997, the Reserve Bank introduced the second series of Zimbabwe banknotes into circulation. Due to high inflation, which at the time peaked at 42.1% in 1992, the rollout began with two new denominations, $50 and $100. Other denominations followed in 1997, while the $2 note was replaced by a coin. Worsening high inflation, which reached 140.1% in 2002, caused the Reserve Bank to introduce the $500 note on 31 August 2001, and the note on 1 October 2003.The overall layout of the 1994 series was similar to the 1980 series, but the Domboremari moved to the left, and the animals moved to the other side, acting as a see-through register. The obverse also had a flower at centre, a solid element with a latent image of the letters "RBZ", and tactile marks for the visually impaired. The watermark of the Zimbabwe Bird had a long neck, while the security thread was demetalised with the letters "RBZ" and the denomination. The $500 and note also had a holographic stripe, but the $500 note dropped the feature when the main colour changed from red to brown.
Almost all banknotes in the 1994 series had the signature of Leonard Tsumba: the signature of his successor, Gideon Gono, appeared on $500 notes dated 2004. Giesecke+Devrient also printed some of the notes: the serial number prefixes were "WA" to "WM" for the G+D notes, and "WN" to "WU" for the Fidelity notes.
Cargill bearer cheques
In May 2003, the Reserve Bank allowed the Cargill Cotton Group to issue emergency bearer cheques to cotton farmers, via a Standard Chartered Zimbabwe branch in Harare: Cargill issued these cheques due to a shortage of money caused by high annual inflation, which according to The Herald, was around 269.2% in June 2003.The Cargill bearer cheques had the same legal status as regular banknotes, and were valid for six months from the date of issue, making them the first Zimbabwean currency notes with an expiry date. Typocrafters printed these bearer cheques, which carried the signature of Cargill's finance director Priscilla Mutenbwa, and operations director Stephen Newton-Howes.
2003 bearer cheque series
The Reserve Bank eventually issued their own bearer cheques: the, and cheques entered circulation on 26 September 2003, and the and cheques on 1 October 2005. The cheques also had an expiry date, and circulated until the demonetisation of the first dollar, on 21 August 2006.The bearer cheques used watermarked security paper meant for the $50 banknote from 1994: the, and cheques also reused most of the underprint from that denomination. The and cheques used a modified underprint on the obverse, and a single-colour view of Victoria Falls on the reverse. Cheques dated 15 September 2003 bear the signature of the acting governor Charles Chikaura, and the remainder bear the signature of Dr. Gideon Gono, who became governor on 1 December 2003.
Banknotes of the second dollar (2006–2008)
The Zimbabwean dollar was first redenominated on 1 August 2006 under a currency reform campaign codenamed Operation Sunrise and involving the motto Zero to Hero. New-style bearer cheques of the second dollar was introduced and replaced those of the first dollar at the ratio of 1 000 to 1.The change over process was given at short notice and was also rapid because all issues prior to the August 2006 series were to be demonetised and rendered worthless on 21 August 2006. Poor communications meant that many civilians of Zimbabwe were unable to convert old bearer cheques to new ones before the deadline.
2006, 2007 and 2008 Bearer cheque series
The 2006 bearer cheque series was put into circulation on 1 August 2006 and initially consisted of 14 denominations, ranging from 1¢ to. The cheques were signed by Dr. Gideon Gono and were set to expire on 31 July 2007, except for the and cheques, which were initially due to expire on 31 December 2007, but later extended to 31 July 2008. The denomination was also issued, despite not being widely publicised in the changeover campaign.Two variations that were issued for the and denominations are recognised in the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: the difference between them was the use of digit grouping. Cheques with the denomination expressed as '10000' or '100000' bear serial numbers with the prefix AA, while notes with prefixes AB onwards is expressed as or .
The 2007 bearer cheque series was first issued on 2 March 2007 with the introduction of and cheques to act as intermediary denominations between the, and cheques respectively. As inflation turned into hyperinflation in March 2007, the bearer cheque was also introduced on 1 August 2007, followed by the joint introduction of the,, and denominations on 20 December 2007. The bearer cheque had its date of lapse extended twice up to 31 December 2008.
The denomination was the first denomination to use the Optically Variable Ink technique, on the value positioned at the top right of the obverse. The denomination of the December 2007 series was the only note out of all cheques of the second dollar to bear a holographic strip, as the cheque was printed on paper that was prepared for the notes of the first dollar.
The circulation of the 2008 bearer cheque series commenced on 18 January 2008 with three denominations ranging from to, and concluded with the issue of the bearer cheque on 15 May 2008. Three denominations of the 2008 series remained legal tender at the ratio of 1010 to 1 until being demonetised on 31 December 2008.
There are two variants of the denomination, the primary difference being the typeface and size of the serial number. Those with slightly larger serial numbers bear the prefix DA. The banknote is larger in dimension out of the rest of the 2008 series.
Special agro-cheques
The Reserve Bank circulated special agro-cheques, from 15 May to 31 July 2008. They had a different design, and they were intended for use only by farmers: however, Zimbabweans treated them as regular money, because of the continued hyperinflation, and their similar function to bearer cheques. The Reserve Bank demonetised both agro- and bearer cheques on 31 December 2009, following the introduction of the third dollar.The four denominations in this series are not the same by dimensions as the note used different paper from the 500 ZWD banknote of 2001. Until the release of the in January 2009, the agro-cheque was the second highest denominated banknote to enter circulation after the Cold War, after the 500 billion dinar note of the Yugoslav dinar.
Banknotes of the third dollar (2008–2009)
2007 banknote issues
The 2007 banknote series was prepared by the Reserve Bank in October 2006 for the abandoned second phase of Operation Sunrise. The banknotes featured the Domboremari on the obverse, two scenes on the reverse, and the Zimbabwe Bird as the watermark. There were additional security features as opposed to previous issues, which included security threads, see-through register marks and recognition marks for the partially sighted. Holographic security threads and Optically Variable Ink were used on the, and notes. When the redenomination of 1 August 2008 occurred these notes were put into circulation as banknotes of the third dollar between 1 August 2008 to 31 December 2008.2008 banknote issues
The 2008 banknote series circulated from 29 September 2008 to 12 April 2009. The series demonstrated the intensity of hyperinflation during the period as the highest denomination increased from to trillion by January 2009, the latter being the largest denomination issued by the Reserve Bank. The first issues of the series were the and denominations. These were followed by the following denominations:- , and million
- million, million and million
- million and million
- billion, billion and billion notes
- billion and billion notes
- trillion, trillion, trillion and trillion
Banknotes of the fourth dollar (2009)
On 2 February 2009, the Reserve Bank introduced banknotes of the fourth dollar, equal to one trillion third dollars: the banknotes of the third dollar were supposed to lose legal tender status by 1 July 2009, but the Zimbabwe [Government of National Unity of 2009|power-sharing government] of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai instead suspended the Zimbabwean dollar entirely on 12 April 2009. The banknotes, along with those of the third dollar, were eventually demonetised on 30 September 2015, after 6 years and 171 days of disuse.The banknotes of the fourth dollar consisted of seven denominations from $1 to $500, reusing elements from earlier issues. Security features were similar to the emergency issues of the third dollar, which replaced the watermark and the windowed security thread with an iridescent strip and the Zimbabwe Bird in optically variable ink: a series of triangles on the right edge acted as a registration device.
Bond notes (2016–2019)
US$10 million worth of Zimbabwean Bond Notes were introduced in November 2016 and are denominated in U.S. dollars. They circulate along with eight other currencies, but could not be used outside of Zimbabwe. Withdrawals from Zimbabwean bank accounts were issued in Bond Notes. On 20 February 2019, during the Monetary Policy Statement, the Governor Dr Mangundya announced that physical bond notes, RTGS, Ecocash or OneWallet balances would all now be known as "RTGS dollars". These bear the signature of John Mangudya, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.Banknotes of the fifth dollar (2019–2024)
On 11 November 2019, new banknotes of and were issued without the words "Bond Note".On 15 May 2020, the RBZ announced the introduction of and notes into circulation. The entered circulation on 19 May, and the entered circulation in the first week of June.
On 6 July 2021 the entered circulation.
On 5 April 2022 the entered circulation.
The Zimbabwe dollar is replaced by Zimbabwe Gold from 8 April 2024.
Banknotes of the ZiG (2024–present)
The ZiG banknotes are almost identical in design, different only by value and colour: the front features the Domboremari and a QR code, while the reverse features liquid gold being moulded on top of a stack of 12 gold bars. Scanning the QR code returns a plain text string "Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe ZiG# Harare 2024", where # is the denomination.
Replacement banknotes
The Reserve Bank allocated special prefixes for replacement banknotes: prefixes for replacement Zimbabwean banknotes vary, although it largely settled on "ZA" for issues of the second, third and fourth dollar.| Currency | Replacement prefixes | |
| First dollar | ||
| First dollar | ||
| First dollar | ||
| Second dollar | ||
| Third and fourth dollar | ZA | |
| Bond notes | AZ | |
| Fifth dollar | ||
| ZiG | ZX |
Notaphilic significance
Hyperinflationary Zimbabwean banknotes have earned significant interest from the Notaphilic community and buyers in general for their absurdity rather than for their designs, with examples selling for much more than their true face value: according to The Wall Street Journal in 2011, United States House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Stanford University economist John B. Taylor each kept a $100 trillion note in their wallet as a physical reminder of the perils of hyperinflation. At the same time, hyperinflationary notes have been targeted by investment scams similar to those affecting the Iraqi dinar, where promoters falsely claim that the notes would be "revalued" to a profitable exchange rate.The collectors' value of a Zimbabwean banknote depends on various factors: the rarity, based on factors such as the name of capital city, how long it was printed, or the type of watermark; its condition, and the national situation at the time of issue, such as shortages or hyperinflation. Common designs and variants, such as the low-value bearer cheques of the second dollar, are usually valued at around US$1 each, while rare varieties such as the $10 "Salisbury error" note and the Standard Chartered issues are valued at around US$190 or more.
Other circulating banknotes
As in every fiscal emergency, hard currency, particularly the United States dollar, has long served as a parallel currency on the black market, and many prices in shops would be posted in US dollars, even during periods when it was illegal to possess foreign currency or to transact business in US dollars.A unique form of circulating specie is the fuel ration coupon, which has been issued in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Known denominations include 1, 5, 10, 20, 25, & 50 litres of petrol, kerosene and/or diesel, and translate roughly into the local petrol price. Businesses, including Western Union, have been reported paying employees with these coupons, and even auctions have been transacted in this currency. As with much Zimbabwe currency, printing standards are crude and counterfeiting is rampant; the RBZ has been dissuading this widespread use.