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20 000 Dollars Emergency Bearer Cheque
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe |
|---|---|
| Year | 2003 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#23 |
| Obverse description | The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe logo appears at upper left alongside a vignette of the Flame Lily, the national flower of Zimbabwe, set against fine guilloche underprint work. Three rhinoceroses are positioned at the lower right. The face carries the full bearer cheque inscription detailing the payable denomination, expiry date of 31st December 2005, and issue date of 1st December 2003. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 50505050 |
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| Comments |
By 2003, Zimbabwe's inflation had already begun outpacing the Reserve Bank's ability to print denominations fast enough for routine transactions. These bearer cheques — technically not banknotes under Zimbabwean law, a distinction that allowed the Reserve Bank to bypass certain statutory limits on money supply expansion — were issued as a stopgap, with Fidelity Printers in Harare scrambling to meet demand domestically rather than relying on foreign printers.
The bearer cheque format carried a printed expiry date, after which the instrument was theoretically invalid — a mechanism intended to discourage hoarding that became functionally irrelevant as inflation rendered the face value nearly worthless long before any expiry was reached.