| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Copper Catcher
Moderator
USA
594 Posts |
 Posted - 08/10/2008 : 11:27:43
|
07 Aug 2008 17:23:25 GMT Source: IRIN
Source:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/1b351f6c66930066378aa8e108e18a5c.htm
CHITUNGWIZA, 7 August 2008 (IRIN) - When the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) announced its decision to revive old coinage, Samuel Mapuranga, 29, of Chitungwiza, a dormitory city 30km south of Harare, the capital, had something to smile about.
Without enough money to buy even a loaf of bread for his two school-going children, he borrowed a pick and a shovel from a neighbour and rushed to a nearby informal garbage site.
"I used to work as a till operator for a local shop owner who gave me coins to throw away because they had become useless. I followed his instructions ... Now that they [the coins] are back in circulation, I have something to smile about," Mapuranga told IRIN.
Coins last used in 2001 were brought back into circulation on 1 August. Gideon Gono, governor of the RBZ, has introduced new coins as well as new notes to replace the old bearer cheques, from which and 10 zeroes were removed.
On the first day Mapuranga dug up enough coins to transform himself into a "trillionaire" in the old currency. "I found about nine trillion dollars [Z$9,000 in the new currency, about US$60] on the first day of my secret treasure hunt, and half of that the following day, but the 'gold mine' is drying up now," said Mapuranga, whose windfall amounted to more than a quarter of a school teacher's monthly salary.
Resuscitation of the coinage has brought cheer to Zimbabweans likes Mapuranga, struggling to make ends meet in a collapsed economy. Even though he is not as lucky as he was on the first two days, he is able to find the odd stash of coins in dumping sites dotted around the city, "And that makes me the envy of many people who put on a jacket and tie six days a week and yet get peanuts from their employers."
Shops and informal traders sometimes refuse to accept his coins because they are too blackened with dirt, but that does not worry him because he can still go to the bank and exchange them for new notes.
These days, Mapuranga can afford basic commodities like sugar, washing soap and maize-meal, and even manage to have a drink with friends at the local liquor shop.
"I have been struggling to put money on the table for years, but in the past four days the sun has been shining brightly through my window, thanks to the return of the coins," he said. "I can now give my children money to spend at school and I have even managed to pay up the top fees that the school was demanding."
Play money
Fortunate Kanhukamwe, 19, a housemaid who also lives in Chitungwiza, has suddenly found joy in the coins she used to use as play money to cheer up her employers' two-year-old son.
"My employers throw these coins everywhere and when they are away at work I look in every hidden corner - even madam's underwear closets - for them. They don't know it, but I have managed to gather about three times the salary they give me a month in a short space of time," Kanhukamwe told IRIN.
In her free time she searches the alleys and streets for coins, but is careful not to let her employers know, fearing they might take them away from her. "Sometimes we fight over the coins that we find in the streets, but that [the fights] is a lot of fun in these hard times."
However, there are fears that the joy brought by the reintroduction of the coins could be short-lived, and Mapuranga and Kanhukamwe admit that "We have to make as much hay as possible while the sun shines."
Innocent Makwiramiti, a Harare-based economist and past chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), told IRIN: "The coins are bringing back temporary joy. In two weeks or so they will be despised, because they would have been rendered useless by the hyperinflationary environment we are operating under."
Inflation is officially estimated at around 2.2 million percent, but independent analysts have put it as high as 15 million percent. Makwiramiti said the RBZ had been forced to reintroduce the coins because Giesecke and Devrient, the German company supplying the paper used to print notes, had decided to stop doing so in protest of the political violence in the recent elections.
Elton Mangoma, secretary for economic affairs in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said in a recent statement that "no amount of tinkering with currency denominations will address the Zimbabwean crisis", and described Gono's new measures as "the usual nonsense".
"Allowing people to scrounge for old money from their drawers will make it impossible to know how much currency is on the market," he pointed out, and this "could further push up inflation, which has now hit stratospheric levels". The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has appealed for about US$26.6 million to assist 260,100 people in need.
More than 5 million Zimbabweans will suffer food insecurity by the height of the hungry season between January and March 2009, according to a crop assessment forecast released on 18 June by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP).
"This figure [5.1 million] represents approximately 45 percent of the country's population," said Peter Lundberg, the head of the IFRC's delegation in Harare. "It gives a clear indication of how severe the situation is, and could become. We are very concerned."
|
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and are considered for entertainment purposes only. It is not the intent of this author to provide legal, investment or medical advice and nothing posted here should be considered to be so. You are advised to seek independent counsel to act upon any laws discussed in this communication. |
|
|
legacypac
Administrator
Canada
1653 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 15:07:49
|
| Someone here was asking about their old Zb coins... Now they circulate again! |
 |
|
|
Copper Catcher
Moderator
USA
594 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 15:38:11
|
| I would like to get a penny from there is anyone has one they want to sell. |
DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and are considered for entertainment purposes only. It is not the intent of this author to provide legal, investment or medical advice and nothing posted here should be considered to be so. You are advised to seek independent counsel to act upon any laws discussed in this communication. |
|
|
|
pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
2034 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 20:24:31
|
Innocent Makwiramiti, a Harare-based economist-
"The coins are bringing back temporary joy. In two weeks or so they will be despised, because they would have been rendered useless by the hyperinflationary environment we are operating under."
The coins won't be despised if they are sold for their melt value two weeks from now. (A thought that any common man would realize but not a typical economist. Maybe he is sore that others are making more in a day from coins than he makes in a month. ) |
|
|
|
Metal Maniac
Penny Sorter Member
43 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2008 : 21:01:21
|
pencilvanian is right this guy is probably ticked that these "average joes" are making more then him because they have something that he with his sheep skin doesn't have and that is the common sense to know what has inherent value and what doesn't.
What gets me is that if inflation is running that high, why in the world are these people still going to work!!!! I mean if inflation is running at 15 MILIION you need to quit your f*!#'ing job, head for the hills, start growing your own food, become your own boss, and use the barter system.
When inflation gets that bad working for someone else make absolutely no sense. At that point I would think you are better off making your own way after all you have nothing to lose once things get that bad. |
Edited by - Metal Maniac on 08/21/2008 21:04:00 |
|
|
|
swusc
Penny Collector Member
490 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2008 : 21:43:11
|
If wages are keeping up with inflation (doubtful), then the inflation doesn't hurt as much. Your income would still buy the same, but your cash savings would be highly devalued.
If you are in a city or have no cash, then how will you get land to grow food. I highly doubt farm land is cheap. Do most families have enough land to grow all their food needs?
Basically those people are screwed through likely no (or little) fault of their own.
-SWUSC |
`Everybody is ignorant. Only on different subjects.' Will Rogers
"This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the "hidden" confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard." Alan Greenspan, 1966. |
|
|
|
moboman
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1332 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2008 : 00:38:10
|
| This story sounds like an irresponsible kid with money. As soon as the get it, it leaves there hands. |
I have a hard time resisting the temptation to take a wheat penny out of the take a penny cup when I see one! |
|
|
|
Cody8404
Penny Collector Member
USA
340 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2008 : 15:55:51
|
Why not head for the hills?
The hills are already covered by other people who have already run out of money. If you try and grow your own food people more starving than you steal it before you can eat it.
Why work?
If these folks work at anything it is better to pay for one meal a month than none. If you can find work.
100% annual inflation makes $1 today worth $0.01 in one year. Zimbabwe inflation is officially 15,000,000%. How fast does it go to 0.
In Zimbambwe Z$1 today is worth a few cents tomorrow. Our, US, Canada, Mexico, the rest of the world inflation is slower, but still real. |
Awake, O kings of the earth! Come ye, O, come ye, with your gold and your silver, to the help of my people, to the house of the daughters of Zion, to the help of the people of the God of this Land even Jesus Christ. |
|
|
|
pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
2034 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2008 : 18:49:49
|
Another point of view-
Instead of "head for the hills & grow your own food"
try
"Head for the hills and get the heck out of Dodge!"
If things are so bad in Zimbabwe, and a Zimbabwean has silver or gold, then it makes sense to leave for a nation that doesn't have hyperinflation. South Africa borders Zimbabwe as do a few other african nations. I suspect many well-to-do or smart Zimbabweans did just this when things began to go wrong a few years back.
Common sense, the uncommon trait.
************************************
After thinking about this for a minute or two, I was reminded of Ferfal's tale of life (if you can call it that) in his home country in south america. Things are terrible there but the population refuse to leave for greener (and less dangerous) pastures whether they have the means to leave or not.
Some people just won't accept the fact that you somtimes you have to move to get a better quality of life, be it a move to another city, state or nation. |
Edited by - pencilvanian on 08/22/2008 19:03:32 |
|
|
|
legacypac
Administrator
Canada
1653 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2008 : 19:41:11
|
| If you have no money (and the little you had is worthless) and no passport, where are you going to go? How to leave the country? Even if you got to South Africa you can't work there. Better to work if you can and at least get enough to buy some food quickly with your earnings. |
|
|
|
pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
2034 Posts |
Posted - 08/22/2008 : 20:18:09
|
quote:
Originally posted by legacypac
If you have no money (and the little you had is worthless) and no passport, where are you going to go? How to leave the country?
Probably the same way that illegal immigrants all over the world do it, they find a way, they pay what little they have to smugglers, they just cross borders (illegal immigration occurs in Europe and Asia, it isn't an American phenomenon).
[quote}Even if you got to South Africa you can't work there. Better to work if you can and at least get enough to buy some food quickly with your earnings.
[/quote]
how can you be sure illegal immigrants won't be hired in south Africa or elsewhere in Africa? Cheap labor is welcome by penny pinching employers world wide.
The original point is if Zimbabwe is truly going down economically, why stay aborad a sinking ship? Get in a lifeboat even if you have to build one yourself. |
|
|
|
Metal Maniac
Penny Sorter Member
43 Posts |
Posted - 08/25/2008 : 20:28:02
|
Pencilvanian is correct, getting out if possible would be the way to go.
The point I was trying to bring up earlier was, if the currency devalues at THAT fast of a rate and the normal process is to collect your pay and try despirately to convert it as quickly as possible into something of tangible value before it loses all value then wouldn't it eventually make more sense (with hyperinflation being that bad) to work for tangibles to begin with and then sell said tangibles when you actually NEED currency (for bill paying). For example, wouldn't it make more sense at some point for this guy to do nothing but collect old coins, scavenge for metals, beg for food etc. rather then working for currency that turns to crap within hours.
If you need currency to pay bills you could always sell off some tangibles when you need to, otherwise bartering for what you need would make more sense. I figure why work for such a rapidly depreciating currency to buy a store of wealth, when you can instead work to get the store of wealth first and then sell what you need to get whatever currency you have to have.
I'm thinking if your monitary system is that screwed up the only winning move is to get out of it...leaving the country, establishing barter communities, black market, working for yourself for tangibles, etc.
A big problem in this world is how the majority of humanity always assume that you have to play by the rules that corrupt "leaders" and governments put in place to screw you... the average joe. At some point you have to fight back and start breaking the rules.
That is one reason why we hoard coins isn't it? To get back through exploiting the coin inflation loophole some of the purchasing power the government stole from us through inflation in the first place? |
|
|
|
TexasPQ
Penny Sorter Member
39 Posts |
Posted - 08/26/2008 : 18:07:33
|
| A lot of people did go to South Africa but they weren't necessarily welcomed there. There was a rash of xenophobic riots in South Africa a few months back. Basically the poorer South Africans blamed the immigrant groups (including Zimbabweans) for taking their jobs. Things got so bad that many people just left SA and went back to Zimbabwe. Tragic situation all the way around. |
|
|
|
Ponce
Penny Pincher Member
Cuba
174 Posts |
Posted - 08/29/2008 : 19:35:31
|
If you look for my old posting you will find what I wrote about holding coins.......in 1918-1923 this old lady had a bathtube full of coins and she lived like a queen by using her coins, the reason for this is that there were 175 printing houses printing the no good mark but no one was making coins.
I hold betwee $7,000-10,00 in coins, maybe even more, I have 5 five gallons full of coins and of dollar bills, been saving then sinse 1977........that not counting my 40 bricks of nickels or the ammo boxes full of pennies and quarters. |
"If you don't hold it, you don't own it"...Ponce |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
ZIMBABWE: Coins change fortunes
