Depreciation: Not Just For The Dollar
By JD Bluefield | August 4, 2008
Have you been saddened lately by the dollar’s declining value? From 1980 to now the buying power of the dollar has been cut by more than half. Well, if that’s depressing, here is some food for thought that may cheer you up. Skimming through portfolio.com, I found an article about the ridiculous currencies around the world that are virtually worthless. Not quite post-WWII Germany Marks in a wheelbarrow, but close.
Zimbabwe
Freaked about the USD’s (US Dollar’s) 4% inflation rate? Zimbabwe’s inflation rate peaked at 100,000%. The best part… these dollars have an expiration date.
10M Zimbabwe Dollars = $4 USD
Viet Nam
Viet Nam’s 500,000-dong = $31.37 USD
This is what half a million dongs look like. Sorry, sophomoric, but I couldn’t help myself.
Source: Portfolio.com
Indonesia
100,000-rupiah = $11.05 USD
Iran
50,000-rial = $5.35 USD
Inflation is right around 15%.
Sao Tome
50,000-dobra = $3.47 USD
Guinea
10,000-franc = $2.33 USD
It’s good to know that there are places where the mighty dollar is still mighty! I’d never want to visit these places, but still good to know.
Here in the US we have heavy discussions on the validity and necessity of pennies and nickels, since they actually cost more to produce than they’re worth. If you apply that cost to foreign notes its easy to extrapolate the minimum denomination that one of these countries might use.
According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in 2007 it costs 6.2 cents per note to print 9.1 billion US currency paper notes. If you apply that to the Viet Nam dong, it means that the minimum profitable dong for the Viet Nam mint to print would be 1,000-dongs. (500,000-dongs / $31.37 USD) * $0.062 USD = 988.2-dongs. Since it makes no sense to make a 989-dong, you’d round up to the next metric. Can you imagine carrying 1,000 dongs in your wallet? Okay, now I’m really done. But either way, now you have something worldly to talk about at your next social party.
Topics: Savings |
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