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Rhodesia's balancing act
January 1, 2023 @ 20:57
Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from the UK in 1965 after the former colonial master suggested the white minority share power with the black majority. Just a month earlier, the country had placed a large order for banknotes with UK based printer Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. for £20 million in banknotes (eight million 10 shillings, 11 million £1, and one million £5 banknotes) for delivery in 1966. The independence declaration stymied this, with both the UK and Rhodesia appointing rival bank governors. Bradbury was instructed to continue to print the notes, but without signatures or dates on them. After printing, with the UK government disallowing the notes to be sent to Rhodesia they were stored in a vault at the Bank of England in 210 boxes. In the interim, Rhodesia decimalized their currency, and continued to argue with the UK over Independence. Unbeknownst to Britain, the Rhodesians had figured out that they wouldn't get any banknotes from England. So they turned to the Germans at about the same time 210 boxes were being deposited into the Bank of England vault. Giesecke and Devrient (G+D) of Munich got an order from Rhodesia for £29 million in banknotes (8 million 10 shillings, 15 million £1, and 2 million £5).
The British found out pretty quickly and only after G+D had fulfilled most of the order. The UK declared that the legitimate bank governor was in London, not in the Rhodesian capital Salisbury and declared the German printed notes counterfeit. They were seized in Frankfurt pending litigation. Rhodesia at this point had two very large consignments of banknotes stuck in Europe. After a year of arguing the British-based Bank of Rhodesia came to an agreement with G+D and the German Courts in which the notes would be turned over a German bank for storage and the British would pay storage fees. If nothing came out of an agreement with the UK and Rhodesia over its independence, the notes would be destroyed after 2 and a half years. So, in late 1969, the German printed notes were all incinerated and the printing plates destroyed. Across the channel, there were still the 210 boxes of England printed banknotes in storage. But not for long - in 1973 they too were incinerated having languished in storage.
The Rhodesians had yet another trick up their sleeve. They paid G+D to setup a printing works in the basement of a government building in Salisbury. Before the British noticed, and via South African agent, the Germans had sold the Rhodesians two old banknote presses. Having purchased paper from Italy and using a dry offset process, which features lesser quality than an intaglio printing, Rhodesia very quickly produced their own banknotes in the basement. They even had a security thread and a watermark. The notes were introduced in late 1967. The 10 shilling September 11, and the £5 note November 10. Serial numbers for the Rhodesian printed notes began with L/10 for 10 shillings and J/3 for the £5 - as previous numbers had been used by G+D.
A pre "independence" Rhodesia 10 shilling note printed in the UK, using standard intaglio printing.
A post "independence" note printed, likely, in the basement of a building in Salisbury (now Harare). The lower quality is evident, a the UK considered these notes counterfeit.
The Rhodesian banknotes prior to the affair portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in an engraving based on a 1955 Pietro Annigoni painting commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers in London. the same portrait of the Queen, with her large Order of the Garter sash, appeared on banknotes from island based territories. Fiji, Eastern Caribbean, the Island of Man, Malta, the Seychelles, Trinidad & Tobago, etc. The Rhodesians were the only non-island territory to use it. While arguing over the two ultimately incinerated sets of notes, they re-engraved the image using pre-1965 banknotes as a guide. It wasn't as good. New notes were introduced February 19, 1970 and removed the Queen entirely. Rhodesia was independent and they didn't need her anymore. Rhodesian banknotes didn't feature any human beings after that. When the country was overtaken by majority rule in 1979 with independence in 1980, it was renamed Zimbabwe and Salibsury was renamed to Harare. Now issuing their own notes, Zimbabwe's didnt feature any specific people on them either. The basement print works eventually evolved into Fidelity Printers & Refinery, growing at one time so large that they printed notes for other African countries. With the exception of some background slice-of-life characters, the country relied on animals and natural or commercial and industrial scenery for iconography. The face of each note was normally was dominated by the Chiremba Rocks. The first specific person since the Queen during Rhodesian times finally came around 50 years later. Even then, technically, it's a statue.
Zimbabwe introduced a new $50 note in July 2021. The highest denomination, it was meant to be able to buy one loaf of bread. One note, one loaf. Zimbabwe's dollar was reintroduced in June 2019 but US dollars are allowed to circulate alongside due to high inflation. News reports from 2019 detail desperate Zimbabweans taping or gluing together old US dollar notes to avoid having to use the Zimbabwean dollars. The obverse features the Chiremba Balancing Rocks, the same engraving seen since the country’s first 1980 banknote series, which was later famous for preposterously high denominations. The engraving itself massively oversizes the rocks, which have tiny palm trees around the bases. The rocks were enlarged by the artist at the bank’s request to represent the oversized importance of a piece of national identity. The face of the note features the decidedly sad looking face of rebellion leader Mbuya Nehanda (aka Charwe Nyakasikana), who fought against the British in the 1890s. She’s in front of the country’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She’s the first specific person ever on a Zimbabwean banknote and was added to the 50 to send a message. The country was working on a massive and expensive statue of her in 2021 while at the same time being forced to beg for food aid for the starving populace. She's very likely on the 50 to validate the decision to build a big statue while people were literally starving. Zimbabwe famously won’t reveal where it’s banknotes are printed, but the plane that delivered them to Harare left from the airport right next to Giesecke & Devrient in Germany. The only security features to speak of are the Rollingstar security strip and the watermark. It's not like they're going to print them in England or anything. After its introduction specifically for people to buy a loaf of bread with one banknote, the street market value of 50 Zimbabwean dollars was about 35 US cents. The average price for a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe at the time? 93 US cents. You'd need three. In 2022 Zimbabwe introduced a new 100 dollar note, the highest denomination, which was meant to be enough for a single bus fare. Spoiler alert: by the time it came out, you'd need three of them.