# Buying hyperinflation bills

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 5, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892 "2012-02-05T21:15:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892/1 "2012-02-05T21:15:30Z")

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As a “white elephant” prize for an upcoming board game day\*, I’m thinking of awarding a hyperinflation note, like a Zimbabwe 50 Trillion Dollar Bill or Yugoslavian 50 Billion Dinar bill.

Some googling found some sites, but I’m wondering if anyone knows which are relaiable. I want the money to be REAL\*\*, and theoretically tradable in for the exchange rate (even if if that is 1 cent), but will pay more than that to buy it (\< $10)

Thanks  
Brian

- The theme being games where money is one way to get vicroty points. For Example: Brass, 7 Wonders, even Railways of the World (one of the Baron cards gives you VP if you are the richest)

\*\* Since there is no Yugoslavia, not sure the exchageability of those dollars

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892/2 "2012-02-05T21:56:15Z")

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The Zimbabwe note would be your best choice. While it is _technically_ exchangeable today, it isn’t in practicality.

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**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892/3 "2012-02-05T22:46:49Z")

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Some clarification on “real” - “technically tradable” is good enough.

Brian

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**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892/4 "2012-02-05T23:11:08Z")

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I’m not quite clear on the status of the Zimbabwe dollar. It was abandoned as the official currency in 2009, so I believe it is no longer available for exchange (except as a collectors item), but I’m not sure.

It seems the best bet may be the Vietnamese dong. (Good luck getting Somalian currency.)

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least\_valued\_currency\_unit](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_valued_currency_unit)

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**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892/5 "2012-02-06T02:16:35Z")

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I would love a $100,000,000,000,000 zimbabwean dollar bill!!!

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**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892/6 "2012-02-06T03:37:48Z")

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I’ve got a few of the $100 trillion notes from ebay just as a novelty. They are worthless.

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**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892/7 "2012-02-06T04:31:33Z")

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I have some German hyperinflation money from the 1920’s. It’s kinda cool to see the same coin go from 50 pfennig, to 500 marks, to (Aluminum) 50 million marks.

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**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-hyperinflation-bills/611892/8 "2012-02-07T09:00:24Z")

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I wouldn’t mind buying some of these for my coin collection.