New Zimbabwe currency

This item appears on page 36 of the May 2019 issue.

After years of hyperinflation, Zimbabwe got rid of its currencies in 2009, instead relying on currencies of other nations, primarily the US dollar and South African rand. In October 2016, it began printing its own “US” dollars, colloquially called “zollars,” which were traded 1-to-1 with actual US dollars. On Feb. 20, 2019, Zimbabwe stopped printing zollars and introduced the first currency of its own since 2019, called Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) dollars.

Unlike zollars, RTGS dollars are traded on the open market, so conversion rates will fluctuate. Upon its introduction, one RTGS dollar was worth 40¢ ($1 = RTGS2.50).