Banknotes of Zimbabwe

The first banknotes of Zimbabwe were issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (formerly Reserve Bank of Rhodesia) for the first dollar (ZWD) 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 From 1994 to 1997 the Reserve Bank issued a new series of notes ranging from to , although the banknote was withdrawn and replaced by a coin in 1997.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 . On 1 August 2006 the banknotes of the second dollar (ZWN), with less elaborate designs, replaced those of the first dollar at the ratio of 1 000 to 1. The redenomination (codenamed Operation Sunrise) 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, 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 (agricultural cheques) were issued in denominations ranging from billion to billion as the currency exchange rate was floated. 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 (ZWR), 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 (1010) 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 ($1014) 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 (ZWL) were introduced to replace those of the third dollar at the ratio of one trillion (1012) to 1. It was originally envisaged that banknotes of the third dollar would stay 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 ($2 to ) 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 $20and 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 (governor from 1983 to August 1993), and notes dated 1994 had the signature of Leonard Tsumba (August 1993 to 31 July 2003). 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, 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. 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 (a Zimpapers subsidiary) 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. ==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. 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 (scarce) 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 (under Cagan's definition), 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 (Pick No. 12). 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. 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 Zimbabwean one hundred trillion dollar note| 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 ($1014) 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: • (13 October 2008) • , and million (3 November 2008) • million, million and million (4 December 2008) • million and million (12 December 2008) • billion, billion and billion notes (19 December 2008) • billion and billion notes (12 January 2009) • trillion, trillion, trillion and trillion (16 January 2009) The large number of denominations issued in late-2008 as well as the suspension of paper supply by Giesecke+Devrient affected the Reserve Bank's ability to maintain the quality of the banknotes. Later denominations copied design features from the original 2007 banknote series and lacked many modern security features that banknotes of major currencies (such as the Canadian dollar) relied on. The notes denominated from to and then from million onwards used non-watermarked paper, whilst the million notes were printed on pure cotton. A silhouette of the Zimbabwe Bird in optically variable ink was used in such notes to compensate for this, but the iridescent strip was dropped for higher denominations. The and notes reused paper for the notes (Pick no. 71), thereby carrying the embedded holographic thread and watermark. Two types of paper (regular and lined) were used on , and banknotes. ==Banknotes of the fourth dollar (2009)==

On 2 February 2009, the Reserve Bank introduced banknotes of the fourth dollar, equal to one trillion ( or ) third dollars: the Reserve Bank meant to have notes of the third dollar co-circulate with those of the fourth dollar until 30 June 2009, but the power-sharing government of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai instead suspended the Zimbabwean dollar entirely on 12 April 2009. The notes, 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)==

2024 series The Reserve Bank unveiled banknotes of the ZiG (Zimbabwean Gold) on 5 April 2024, which originally consisted of eight denominations from 1 ZiG to 200 ZiG. However, only the 10 and 20 ZiG notes entered circulation: The 1, 2 and 5 ZiG notes were cancelled and issued as coins instead, while the release of the 50, 100 and 200 ZiG notes were postponed (then never released) on 30 May 2024, due to concerns by the Reserve Bank that their release would "fuel inflation". 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. 2026 series On 27 February 2026, the Reserve Bank unveiled the second series of ZiG banknotes, also known as the "BiG5" series: consisting of five denominations, the first three (10, 20 and 50 ZiG) entered circulation on 7 April 2026, and the remainder (100 and 200 ZiG) will follow later. The front of the notes features the Domboremari and one of the Big Five game animals, hence the "BiG5" name: the reverse features various landmarks. ==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. ==Notaphilic significance==

Hyperinflationary Zimbabwean banknotes (such as the $100 trillion denomination) 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" (deflated) 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 scrip==

During the height of the 2007–2009 hyperinflation, petrol coupons circulated alongside the Zimbabwean dollar in response to a shortage of local banknotes (at the time, it was illegal to trade in foreign currencies such as the United States dollar): the coupons, particularly those worth , became widely negotiable at the local petrol price (about one pound sterling per litre, or US$1.50 in August 2008), despite warnings from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe against its "widespread use". The popularity of the coupons led to it becoming a target of counterfeiters, due to limited security features. ==See also==