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50 000 Dollars Emergency Bearer Cheque
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe |
|---|---|
| Year | 2005 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Paper |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse carries a central vignette of Victoria Falls (known in the Tonga language as Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning 'The Smoke that Thunders'), as the Zambezi River plunges over the escarpment, rendered in an intaglio-style engraving against a light-toned guilloche underprint. |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Zimbabwe's central bank introduced Emergency Bearer Cheques in 2003 as a temporary workaround to a severe cash shortage — the term "cheque" was a legal fiction allowing rapid issue without the full legislative process required for banknotes proper. The 50,000 dollar denomination, arriving in 2005, was quickly rendered trivial by hyperinflation that was already running at thousands of percent annually. The word "emergency" in the title had, by this point, become a permanent feature of the monetary architecture.
Print runs for the series were high by design — over twelve million of this denomination — but notes disappeared from circulation almost immediately as Gresham's Law played out in extreme conditions and physical cash was hoarded the moment it appeared.