Today's Coin Show Purchases

I didn't buy any coins today, but I did buy a few banknotes and learned a little something in the process.

My "educational" note was clearly a 1 ruble note, with writing in 3 similar alphabets including Cyrillic.  That indicated to me that it was Eastern European, not from the "Stans" of the former USSR.  Not knowing what it is was all the reason I needed to buy it!  I showed it to a friend of mine who can pronounce Cyrillic but I didn't recognize what he was reading as being a country--turns out it's kinda not!  He sounded out what appeared to be the "country" name and did a Google search which determined that the note is a Transnistrian ruble.  What, you've never heard of Transnistria?  Me either, before today!  Turns out that Transnistria is an autonomous/breakaway region of Moldova that, while nominally independent, is not recognized by the United Nations.

(click on currency pictures to enlarge)

The next cool note I got today is from Bhutan.  Look how beautiful it is!  Money doesn't have to be green, black, white, and ugly; rather, it can be colorful and beautiful:

And now, as is my style, some inflationary notes.

The first is from Argentina.  At the turn of the 20th century Argentina was a country on par with the United States economically, but bad government eventually led to periods of severe inflation.  The inflation got so extreme that Argentina even replaced its currency a couple times in order to combat it, but "a rose by any other name":

Throughout much of the latter half of the twentieth century, Argentina was plagued by a weak currency and high inflation. In 1985, in an effort to fight inflation, which had reached 2,000 percent, the government replaced the nation's traditional currency (the peso) with a new currency called the austral. One austral equaled 1,000 pesos. However,inflation continued to rise. In 1989, inflation reached 5,000 percent, making the nation's currency almost worthless. In response, the government again changed the currency in 1992, replacing the austral with the nuevo peso Argentino (new Argentine peso). One nuevo peso was equal to 10,000 australs. Inflation was finally brought under control when the government fixed the nuevo peso to the dollar at a one-for-one exchange rate. While this almost completely wiped out inflation, it also meant that the government has little control over the value of its currency. After the currency was pegged to the dollar, it once again became simply known as the "peso."

I'd never heard of the "austral" currency before today, now I have one:

Brazil also has a late-20th century history of weak currency and inflation:

Real became the official currency of Brazil in 1690 and since then its official status remained intact till 1942. Only in 1942, the currency named Cruzeiro replaced real. The currency rate was 1000 reis = 1 cruzeiro.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Brazil went through a period of high inflation and hence this South American nation had to change its currency numerous times. Until 1986, the Brazilians dealt with Cruzeiros . In that year three zeros were removed and the currency was changed to Cruzado .

After a couple of years another three zeros were removed and the 'new cruzados'-(Cruzados Novos) were introduced to the people of Brazil. In 1990, the Cruzeiros once again were in vogue after replacing Cruzados Novos . Finally another three zeros were reduced and the currency came to be known as Cruzeiros Reais.

In 1994, with the implementation of the new financial plan, the new currency Real was launched. Thus after a long time the currency of Brazil was stabilized. 

Here is my 1000 cruzados note with "three zeroes...removed", with a counterstamp of 1 new cruzado (cruzado novo):

And now, the hyperinflation.

In this post, and in the links to other posts in that post, I show my currency from the worst hyperinflationary periods in history.  Prior to today I had notes from 3 of the 4 worst inflationary periods ever (I treat the Srpska Republic inflation as part of the general Yugoslav inflation), but today I added the 4th--the Yugoslav inflation itself.  As I said in this post, whenever you have this many zeroes on your money, you've got problems:

50 million, 10 billion, and 500 billion dinars.  The first note is 1/10,000 of the last note, 1% of 1%.  If that's too much to take in, try this analogy:  if that last note were $100, the first one would be a cent.

It was a good day at the "coin" show today!

Update, 2/23/18:  More about Transnistria!

Transnistria is the size of Dallas, Texas. Nestled between Moldova and Ukraine, it has a population of just under 500,000 residents who mostly speak Russian.
And in the eyes of the world, it doesn’t officially exist. 

Once, Transnistria was part of Moldova, but in 1990 it declared independence after the fall of the Soviet Union and Moldova’s alliance with Romania. There was a brief war, with some 1,500 casualties, which ended in something of an impasse. 

Transnistria remained independent from Moldova, but is not officially recognized as its own nation. It’s not a part of any other country, and yet it’s not a country in its own right. Its money is completely useless outside of its borders, its passports unusable.