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250 000 000 Dollars Bearer Cheque
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe |
|---|---|
| Year | 2008 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | 2008 |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | RESERVE BANK OF ZIMBABWE Pay the bearer on demand TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS on or before 31st December 2008 for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Issue date: 2nd May 2008 BEARER CHEQUE |
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| Signature(s) | Dr. Gideon Gono (Sig.8) |
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| Comments |
By mid-2008, Zimbabwe's monthly inflation rate had crossed 2.2 million percent — the 250 000 000 dollar denomination was not an outlier but simply one step in a cascading series of emergency bearer cheque issues that the Reserve Bank printed in rapid succession as purchasing power collapsed faster than new notes could reach circulation. Bearer cheques were technically short-term financial instruments with printed expiry dates, a legal fiction that allowed the government to issue currency outside the formal banknote authorization framework.
Gono's signature appears on instruments spanning denominations that would increase by factors of a billion within months. This note was effectively obsolete before most of the 12.175 million printed had been distributed.