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Zimbabwe's bizarre treasure bonanza
Independent Online
August 03, 2008

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=84&art_id=vn20080803083830904C754862

This week, Zimbabwe's hard-pressed consumers were given a break, the first in many hard years. Gideon Gono, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, removed 10 zeroes from Zimbabwe's currency.

Zimbabweans at first greeted the news as a non-event "until we realized the implications of the old silver coins having now been re-introduced. It dawned on us that the old coins form part of the new currency, so they are worth 10 billion times their face value," said a man who did not wish to be named.

This resulted in a joyous nationwide treasure hunt. Zimbabweans are now searching in the backs of cupboards, under beds and in toy boxes looking for the previously unloved and unusable coins.

They had been discarded years ago when the first spurt of hyperinflation made them irrelevant and just too heavy to carry around. Lucky treasure hunters located their stash in biscuit tins, plastic bags and drawers.

Jane Gondiwa, a local banker, says she is going to devote this weekend to finding two camphor cream jars that she is sure are full of Z$5 coins (now each worth 50 billion Zimbabwe dollars).

There is a rare festive mood on the streets full of shoppers lugging bags of coins, delighted that a 50c coin is now worth Z$5-billion and that silver coins are once again useful currency.

Some shoppers are using the opportunity to buy reasonable quantities of meat, sugar and other staples that have been lacking from their diets for some years. Bottle stores are doing a roaring trade.

Elsa Honeybags, a housewife, discovered Z$300 worth of silver coins in receptacles being used as doorstops. This bought 20kg of sugar. Before Gono devalued the dollar, Z$300 was not worth one South African cent but her collection is now worth the equivalent of Z$3-trillion (or 300 new Zimbabwe dollars).

Her housekeeper, Lena Sithole, spent most of the day with her head in her hands because she had given her coins to her four-year-old to play with. In a similar incident, two years ago Jennifer Jones donated her bag of coins worth about Z$1 000 to her nephews. This bought them two pieces of chewing gum.

These coins would now buy a teenager a very "cool" outfit.

Zimbabwe is no place for the mathematically challenged. A few weeks ago, a six-year-old was given Z$500 billion for pocket money and said: "Mommy, you know I can't buy anything in the tuck shop for less than a trill." This demonstrates mathematical aptitude far beyond her years but is now the norm in schools across Zimbabwe. Her parents do not know how she will react to being given a mere Z$100 for pocket money next week.

In Zimbabwe, almost all essentials and some luxuries are available either from informal traders or small shopkeepers.

There is a flourishing barter system in the informal sector.

As an example, Honeybags exchanges one litre of cream for a bar of green soap, and 11 bags of manure is swapped for a kilogram of rice. Two litres of milk pays for her weekly visit to the hairdresser. Petrol sells for US$1,50 a litre and is commonly used as a basis for pricing and calculating costs.

Outsiders often ask how Zimbabweans cope day to day, living with inflation and exchange rates of magnitudes that boggle the mind.

The answer lies partly in the thriving informal sector. But even if this did not exist, a different solution would be found. "We Zimbabweans do two things well: we laugh, and we make a plan," said one.

*Names have been changed to protect people's identities

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