Catalog
100 Quintillion Dollars
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe |
|---|---|
| Year | 2007-2008 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (2007-2009) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse carries a vignette of Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya — The Smoke that Thunders) rendered in intaglio against a green guilloche underprint, with the denomination numeral repeated in the upper and lower margins. |
| Reverse lettering | RESERVE BANK OF ZIMBABWE 100000000000000000000 |
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| Comments |
This note belongs to Zimbabwe's third dollar series, introduced as hyperinflation was already rendering denominations obsolete faster than they could be printed. By late 2008, the monthly inflation rate had exceeded 79 billion percent according to the Cato Institute's calculations — a figure that makes the face value of 100 quintillion (10²⁰) dollars almost comically inadequate as a practical denomination.
The Reserve Bank issued successively larger denominations throughout 2008 in a losing race against price increases, culminating in the 100 trillion dollar note before the Zimbabwean dollar was formally abandoned in 2009. The quintillion-denomination notes from this period were largely spent or discarded within days of issue.