1 Dollar Bearer Cheque

Bearer cheques entered Zimbabwean circulation as a workaround to a specific logistical crisis: the Reserve Bank simply could not print banknotes fast enough to keep pace with accelerating inflation, so these instruments — technically cheques rather than notes, which sidestepped certain legal constraints on currency issuance — were introduced to fill the gap. The 2006 issues predate the worst hyperinflationary episodes but the trajectory was already clear.

Gideon Gono had been appointed governor in 2003 under direct pressure from Mugabe to find solutions to the foreign currency shortage. He signed everything that followed.