Five Billion Zimbabwean Dollars Banknote

Country: Zimbabwe
Issuer: Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Issue year: 2008
Type: Horizontal note
Material: Paper
Size: 148 × 74 mm
Signature: Dr. Gideon Gono
Serial: AB2798996

The story

This note comes from the peak of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation in 2008, when ever-larger denominations were printed to keep up with prices. The front shows the Chiremba balanced-rock formation, while the back shows a tractor in the fields and a dairy cow parlour, pairing a natural landmark with the farming that the economy depended on. Sources disagree on where the rocks are: one dealer places them in Epworth near Harare, while Wikipedia places them in Matopos National Park. A separate 5 billion “Special Agro-cheque” also exists with different wording, so this regular note should not be confused with it. Catalogues list these billion-dollar notes as demonetised, one giving 30 September 2015 for the 1 billion note.

Front

Chiremba Balancing Rocks (three stacked granite boulders) surrounded by shrubs and plants, gold Zimbabwe Bird figure at right, vertical gold stripe with repeating “RBZ” text, stylised grain and cow in the underprint (catalogue-listed, faint in the scan), pink, green and blue zigzag and diamond patterns, signature of Dr. G. Gono with the caption “Governor”, texts “RESERVE BANK OF ZIMBABWE”, “I promise to pay the bearer on demand FIVE BILLION DOLLARS for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe”, “HARARE 2008”, small triangle and diamond registration marks.

Back

Farmer on a tractor driving through crop rows (Numista describes pesticide application), dairy milking parlour with cows and a worker carrying pails, large lattice and diamond-pattern border panel at right, pink and green zigzag band along the top and bottom, text “RESERVE BANK OF ZIMBABWE”.