BH Williams wrote:
Whilst the French were still using the franc, most people of my acquaintance
in rural France still referred to land and property values in old francs
(which hadn't been around for at least forty years)- very disconcerting when
one heard of something costing X million (centimes). I think they like to
keep some point of reference to pre-existing values, so they've got
something to complain about....
Brian

I find it useful (and frightening) to convert from decimal currency back
to old-fashioned pounds, shillings and pence; a small bar of chocolate
now costs twelve shillings (60p).
Bruce

MIG wrote:
I was in a pub near Kings Cross with someone with a Scottish accent
who lived in Leytonstone who was most miffed when they decided to dump
some Scottish notes in his change.

When returning from an overseas tour with the RAF in the 1960s it was
quite common to find that the final pay parade prior to returning to the
UK resulted in a handful of notes from the British Linen Bank, the
Clydesdale Bank and sundry other obscure but perfectly legal outfits.
The buffet bar on Swindon station (first port of call after RAF Lyneham)
was remarkably knowledgeable in such financial matters.
Bruce

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:30:29 +0100, "Peter Masson"
wrote:


wrote

Will English and Welsh retailers accept Scottish 100-pound notes?

Small retailers, except perhaps in Carlisle, Berwick, or Newcastle, wouldn't
see one in a month of Sundays - and many small English and Welsh retailers
won't accept any Scottish notes. After all, they are not legal tender, even
in Scotland. For that matter, Bank of England notes aren't legal tender in
Scotland (though legal tender has a narrow technical meaning).

Even in Scotland you'll probably have trouble using a 100 pound note
unless it is someone that knows you and they are able to give any
change required or it is a business where such notes are "normal"
payment.

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:42:05 +0100, wrote:


"Charles Ellson" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:42:31 +0100, wrote:

"Hugh Brodie" wrote in message
news:ZKGdnURP4qoCEMfVnZ2dnUVZ_sbinZ2d@giganews. com...

Speaking of hyper-inflation, it's fun looking at the website of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe http://www.rbz.co.zw to see the daily exchange
rate of the $Z vs the $US. Yesterday, it was 5,817,000,000; today it's
6,718,000,000. They have just issued $Z 50,000,000,000 notes ("bearer
cheques"). And it will cost you $Z 1,800,000,000 to mail a postcard to
the
US. http://www.zimpost.co.zw/postalrates.html


It's a shame that there are no images of currently circulating Zimbabwean
notes or coins.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4266.html
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/04/...urrencies.html
http://www.neatorama.com/category/money-finance/page/2/
The latter also has a 100,000 USD note.
http://stores.ebay.com.sg/Roberts-Wo...QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Many thanks for that.

Wouldn't it be illegal to sell a 100,000-dollar note, however? They are not
intended for general circulation and I wonder if the relevant US authorities
would have something to say about that.

The one that I'm looking at ATM (on-line, not in my hand!) does not
seem to have any such restriction :-
http://tinyurl.com/3xs6hh (www.purpleslinky.com)
and is "Payable to Bearer". It looks as if while there was no
intention for them to "escape" into general circulation they were
still printed as currency.
As long as there is the correct amount of gold/cowrie shells/whatever
to back a note then there should be no practical reason to worry about
them getting into public hands.

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:43:35 +0100, wrote:


"Jim Brittin" [wake up to reply] wrote in
message m...
In article ,
says...
"Hugh Brodie" wrote in message
...

Speaking of hyper-inflation, it's fun looking at the website of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe http://www.rbz.co.zw to see the daily
exchange
rate of the $Z vs the $US. Yesterday, it was 5,817,000,000; today it's
6,718,000,000. They have just issued $Z 50,000,000,000 notes ("bearer
cheques"). And it will cost you $Z 1,800,000,000 to mail a postcard to
the
US. http://www.zimpost.co.zw/postalrates.html


It's a shame that there are no images of currently circulating Zimbabwean
notes or coins.





50 million note here

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multime.../Zimbabwe__05_
385x25_351858a.jpg

Anywhere to see the other side of these notes?

The half-milliard has both sides shown in :-
http://www.colin-narbeth.com/world_frames.html
choose "Zimbabwe" on the side bar and click on the image at the bottom
of the page.

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:46:33 +0100, wrote:

"Hugh Brodie" wrote in message
m...

wrote in message
...
"Hugh Brodie" wrote in message
...

Speaking of hyper-inflation, it's fun looking at the website of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe http://www.rbz.co.zw to see the daily exchange
rate of the $Z vs the $US. Yesterday, it was 5,817,000,000; today it's
6,718,000,000. They have just issued $Z 50,000,000,000 notes ("bearer
cheques"). And it will cost you $Z 1,800,000,000 to mail a postcard to
the US. http://www.zimpost.co.zw/postalrates.html


It's a shame that there are no images of currently circulating Zimbabwean
notes or coins.

A few notes here - buying a beer in Hara
http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgur...%3Den%26sa%3DG


Interesting. Are people in Zimbabwe using a foreign currency, such as the
dollar or the rand, to purchase things or to hedge against a devaluing
currency? I would think that it would be difficult to actually carry around
such large volumes of currency.

ITYF the USD is a universal black-market currency in countries where
the economy has gone tits-up, possibly accompanied to a lesser degree
by Sterling and Euros or any more local "trusted" foreign currency.

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:48:56 -0700 (PDT), MIG
wrote:

On Jun 20, 11:30*pm, "Peter Masson" wrote:
wrote

Will English and Welsh retailers accept Scottish 100-pound notes?

Small retailers, except perhaps in Carlisle, Berwick, or Newcastle, wouldn't
see one in a month of Sundays - and many small English and Welsh retailers
won't accept any Scottish notes. After all, they are not legal tender, even
in Scotland. For that matter, Bank of England notes aren't legal tender in
Scotland (though legal tender has a narrow technical meaning).

I remember my economics teacher saying that about Scottish notes many
decades ago, but no one believed me when I repeated it. Given that
the claim wasn't clarified to me at the time I couldn't back it up
with an explanation. English people are convinced that Scottish notes
are legal tender.

According to Yahoo Answers, Scottish notes were legal tender from
1939-1946 under the Currency (Defence) Act 1939.

I was in a pub near Kings Cross with someone with a Scottish accent
who lived in Leytonstone who was most miffed when they decided to dump
some Scottish notes in his change.

He would have been even more miffed if the publican didn't give him
any change at all, there being no general obligation to do so.

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:55:16 +0100, wrote:

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

wrote

Will English and Welsh retailers accept Scottish 100-pound notes?

Small retailers, except perhaps in Carlisle, Berwick, or Newcastle,
wouldn't
see one in a month of Sundays - and many small English and Welsh retailers
won't accept any Scottish notes. After all, they are not legal tender,
even
in Scotland. For that matter, Bank of England notes aren't legal tender in
Scotland (though legal tender has a narrow technical meaning).

If the notes are from Scotland and bear the word sterling then they are
legal tender and I believe that retailers have to accept them. I have not
had a problem receiving Scottish notes or paying with them, beyond the
occasional odd look.

As for Scottish notes in Newcastle, I think for comparison that it is not
uncommon to see Manx coins in Liverpool. Those are actually not legal
tender, however, as they are not from the United Kingdom. But my bank does
accept Manx and Channel Island banknotes for deposit.

Scottish notes aren't "legal tender" in Scotland never mind England
but that status has no general practical application in Scotland where
a claim that a debt has not been discharged because Scottish notes
have been offered has AFAIAA never succeeded in recent years.

wrote:

If the notes are from Scotland and bear the word sterling then they are
legal tender and I believe that retailers have to accept them. I have not
had a problem receiving Scottish notes or paying with them, beyond the
occasional odd look.

I have, however, had problems with Northern Irish notes - even from places
that don't give Scottish notes a second glance!

wrote:
"Charles Ellson" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:42:31 +0100, wrote:

"Hugh Brodie" wrote in message
...
Speaking of hyper-inflation, it's fun looking at the website of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe http://www.rbz.co.zw to see the daily exchange
rate of the $Z vs the $US. Yesterday, it was 5,817,000,000; today it's
6,718,000,000. They have just issued $Z 50,000,000,000 notes ("bearer
cheques"). And it will cost you $Z 1,800,000,000 to mail a postcard to
the
US. http://www.zimpost.co.zw/postalrates.html

It's a shame that there are no images of currently circulating Zimbabwean
notes or coins.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4266.html
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/04/...urrencies.html
http://www.neatorama.com/category/money-finance/page/2/
The latter also has a 100,000 USD note.
http://stores.ebay.com.sg/Roberts-Wo...QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Many thanks for that.

Wouldn't it be illegal to sell a 100,000-dollar note, however? They are not
intended for general circulation and I wonder if the relevant US authorities
would have something to say about that.

For starters, the US authorities have something to say about any cash
transaction larger than USD5,000, due to money laundering (and now
"terrorism") laws regardless of the size of the individual bills.

USD10,000 and 100,000 bills were only issued to the Federal Reserve
Banks as a way to transfer money between themselves (much easier than
shipping gold) and were not circulated _at all_. According to the
authorities, all were accounted for and all were destroyed except a few
that were lent (not given or sold) to museums. It is supposedly
impossible for a person to acquire a legitimate one legally, so if such
a bill were presented to a bank, the person would be arrested for either
counterfeiting or theft.

Now, if it turns out that any of those bills _did_ get into circulation
and had been hoarded for eight-plus decades without detection, a bank
would be required to accept it for deposit (the US never demonetizes old
currency or coins), but they could not give it out to another customer
for a withdrawal. They would send the bill to their Federal Reserve
Bank, which would undoubtedly destroy it immediately. That is exactly
what would happen to the remaining USD1000 bills that are out there, but
nobody sane would ever present them to a bank because they're worth more
as collectibles than as money, just like old silver and gold coins that
are now worth many times their face value.

This is decidedly different than what happens to (relatively rare) USD2
bills, which banks accept without comment but only give out to customers
upon specific request. Banks also hoard USD50 and USD100 bills, but
they'll ask if you want them if your withdrawal is large ("Do you want
that in hundreds or twenties?").

S