Tourism is picking up in Zimbabwe with the return of relative stability, and many visitors are looking for ZW$100 trillion notes from 2008 as economic souvenirs.
Sources in Victoria Falls and elsewhere said the ZW$100 trillion notes are fetching US$5 on the street, while smaller-denomination bills go for US$1 to US$3.
Victoria Falls resident Dingumuzi Masuku said most of the tourists queuing to buy old bank notes from street kids and money dealers are from Europe and other parts of the West.
“Thousands of tourists were buying these notes for various purposes and street kids made a lot of money especially through selling the ZW$100 trillion dollar note,” he said.
The Z$100 trillion bill was abandoned with other Zimbabwean dollar notes when the US dollar, the South African rand and Botswana pula became legal tender in early 2009.
Roaring hyperinflation gutted the value of even that huge denomination bill.
Hwange Central Senator Brian Tshuma of the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said selling the bank notes to tourists is the best way of getting rid of the now-worthless Zimbabwean currency.
