HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has launched gold coins to be sold to the public in a bid to tame runaway inflation that has further eroded the country’s unstable currency.
The unprecedented move was announced Monday by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to boost confidence in the local currency.
Trust in Zimbabwe’s currency is low after people saw their savings wiped out by hyperinflation in 2008 which reached 5 billion%, according to the IMF.
This would, I think, actually make Zimbabwe’s currency
more stable than the dollar.
Economics and goldbugging are two flavors that are tough to get into one candy. There’s a line in the book The Mandibles where the character is talking about how the independent nation-state of Nevada is on the gold standard..he says something along the lines of ‘Gold is useless..can’t eat it, can grow it, but for some reason it works as money…even if no one seems to know why.’ I’ve often that that gold is about as close as you’ll ever come to a global currency.
According to the article, Zimbabwe will sell you all the minted coins you’d like as long as you pay in foreign currency. I wonder how Zimbabwe will acquire enough gold to make a difference in their economy..I wouldn’t want to be paid for my gold in those crappy Zimbabwe dollars. Theyre gonna have to pay in other ways…foreign currency, military land leases to the Chinese, oil, etc. I’d be curious to see where this goes.
I suspect what will happen is that this plan, like every other great idea in Africa, will fizzle out from mismanagement and the resources (gold) will disappear into some general or prime minister’s pocket. And the Zim gold coins will become collectors items that are seen ore outside Zimbabwe than in.
I wouldn’t trust them until someone reputable gets hold of one and assays the gold.
Well that has to be better then when they were printing three billion dollar notes because Mugabe had so debased the currency.
I heard they’ve been using USD almost exclusively, maybe this is part of their attempt to go back to their own currency.
Not only did they print the notes they had a spend by date on them. As if any one would keep them when in a day the prices have gone up 50%+
Saw a article during the worst of the first round of inflation that gold mining was a booming trade as a days labor yielded enough gold for food and necessities. Just remember this is the land that the British committed the first genocide of the last century to get the gold and diamonds under the Boers farms. Then the surviving Boer farmers created the breadbasket of Africa until barak obamas’ father fought another genocide to liberate the non-productive communists and destroy several hundred years of progress and leave destitution and misery. Notice anything similar now?
Get ready to stock up on beef, the drought in the south is causing ranchers to sell off herds, prices will drop but then go to the moon. Need strategies to long term store a quantity,ideas anyone?
Home pressure canning. We pressure can ground and cubed meats. Beef pork and chicken. Chicken on the bone or ground. Won’t last as long as dehydrated, but it’s cheaper. Home dehydration can be difficult and the units are pricey. Info in the Ball Canning Book. We have eaten our meat canned over 7 years ago. Keep it in a cool dark place.
Vt:
You are a prime example of “Revisionist History”.
The Boers were FAR harder on “Nieblanke” than the British were…
Is taking from other thieves better or worse than taking from the natives?
The British AND the Boers were operating without caring for the locals.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Ceejay
The Boer drove them into death camps? 20,000+ died in those camps, but 10,000+fought with the Boers and many more supported them,hence forced into camps to stop their support. This was the first industrial genocide of the 20th century but almost never acknowledged.
Commander:
I wonder where the ID’s of these Gold buyers will be kept?
If things get even worse in Zim there will be armed individuals or troops coming round to “Redistribute” these coins…
Ceejay
At what rate of exchange?
Like Russia’s scheme, it looks great on paper, until you realize they’re selling gold at a 50% premium over actual market value.
But my PM broker, Solomon Odonkoh, swears that if I wire him USD$30,000 in cash, they will ship me a pound of 0.99999% gold bullion.
What could possibly go wrong?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o5hSxvN_-s
Part of the issue is that, ‘money’ doesn’t have to be gold to have value. It can also be formed from less dense stores of value, that won’t disappear the instant they’re minted.
Coins can (and have been) minted from nickel, copper, chrome, silver, etc. So long as it has inherent value, it can be minted.
Mint a $1 coin from pure nickel. A $0.50 piece from copper. Mint a $100 silver 1oz. coin. The coins will circulate because they have functional value & can be easily assayed.
No comment
https://youtu.be/thNNeuANBIk
For the amusement value only take a look at the Gold Replica Coins China sells.
The better ones are about 10% of the gold spot of that coin, have a tungsten slug and are quite well detailed. They have fooled some of the best coin folks until a drill test is used.
Want to bet they will be all over Zimbabwe pretty soon?
There are testers that can detect false coins quickly, but they aren’t cheap.
True, but they pay for themselves, literally, when they detect that first fake one-ounce gold coin.
Supposedly, they are not making a copy of the coin, they start with a REAL coin. Slice it open, carve or mill out space for the tungsten wafer, and then weld or glue it back together. Probably a micro laser welder.
I suppose so. One more reason to stack less dense stores of value. Is that level of effort ‘worth it’ to make a fake $30 silver coin? I doubt it.
Around the end of 2011, I sold off my gold coins in order to harvest a down payment for property. I enjoyed the huge profit margin at that time, but that really wasn’t my intent
The property sale went south, due to the “new” mortgage crisis. Banks quit lending. I reclaimed my cash, and thought about re-investing in gold coins again. However, the market was still high so I turned to CZ’s advice on his dealer at Montana Rarities. I subscribed to the junk silver deal for about 5 years until he stopped for personal reasons.
I feel that the junk silver coins are a good investment, simply because i can still get either the silver value, or use them in a vending machine at face value.
I have a pretty good investment in Morgan and Peace silver dollars, but at some point, the person you are dealing with may not understand what they are, and you may be outta luck on a barter or trade. At the least, “modern” US coinage will be more recognizable to the generation we will be dealing with. Same goes for Canadian dollars, half dollars, wolf’s, any other foreign denomination, etc. They probably won’t understand what they are, and any deal or trade may go south.
I prefer to reclaim my “dollars” into stored wealth as tangibles (tools, knives, firearms, ammo, storage boxes, medicals, rechargeable batteries, etc.). Food is “tangible”, but perishable, so I say go halvsies on that. Still keep the basics that supposedly last 25 years.
We have been fed SHTF is today/tomorrow for many, many years. It will happen overnight, but we can’t calculate when. In the meantime, look out for today. Keep all options open, but really think about what every government, state, federal, or foreign, is doing to screw people over.
Digital money is the new headline. Beware. Cash may not get dividends or interest, but it is still king for the day.
We could mint a $30 trillion dollar coin and call it economic recovery?
It could be made in Denver after a good round of choom.
Hussein Hopenchange the Immaculate came up with a similar plan back in the Year Zero reign of 2008-2016.