ZIMBABWE Hunting Information

[Pheroze]

Hank2211 has given good advice. I suggest you listen to him.

Agreed. As a rule I avoid things that can complicate my life.

 

[buck wild]

Sorry if this has been covered, as I didn't read this whole thread. Zim uses the US dollar as its currency and the banks there will often not accept the older USD $100 bill. It needs to be the USD $100 with the blue stripe on the front. I knew this, but apparently other travelers do not. Just FYI !

 

[TERMINATOR]

Sorry if this has been covered, as I didn't read this whole thread. Zim uses the US dollar as its currency and the banks there will often not accept the older USD $100 bill. It needs to be the USD $100 with the blue stripe on the front. I knew this, but apparently other travelers do not. Just FYI !

That's a great heads up.

I would not have known that, and I am going there next summer

Thanks

 

[Hank2211]

That's a great heads up.

I would not have known that, and I am going there next summer

Thanks

I don’t want to be difficult (though I often am, apparently), but that advice, while practically speaking is all you need to know, it’s not technically correct.

Zimbabwe does have its own currency - currently called the ZiG - which is (or was) theoretically backed by gold reserves. No one believed that, and of course, even if it was true when the ZiG was first launched, it probably ceased to be true shortly thereafter as the government decided that it was pretty easy to print more money than they had reserves for. A bad habit that Robert Mugabe ingrained into the system during his tenure (reign?).

I haven’t seen any ZiG notes circulating, but if you pay for something - like gasoline or a road toll - using a Zimbabwean debit card, you generally have to specify whether you are paying in ZiG or USD.

If you’re paying cash for something, you will generally be expected to pay in USD, but while you will get USD bills back as change, you won’t get coins. They will round up to the nearest dollar and either pay the difference in ZiG of give you tokens which you can add up and use in the same place when you get enough. And if you’re paying for a visa at the airport, you will be required to pay in USD.

So the bottom line is that US cash isn’t the only currency, or even the official currency of Zimbabwe, it is king in Zimbabwe, and you shouldn’t leave home without it.

 

[TERMINATOR]

I don’t want to be difficult (though I often am, apparently), but that advice, while practically speaking is all you need to know, it’s not technically correct.

Zimbabwe does have its own currency - currently called the ZiG - which is (or was) theoretically backed by gold reserves. No one believed that, and of course, even if it was true when the ZiG was first launched, it probably ceased to be true shortly thereafter as the government decided that it was pretty easy to print more money than they had reserves for. A bad habit that Robert Mugabe ingrained into the system during his tenure (reign?).

I haven’t seen any ZiG notes circulating, but if you pay for something - like gasoline or a road toll - using a Zimbabwean debit card, you generally have to specify whether you are paying in ZiG or USD.

If you’re paying cash for something, you will generally be expected to pay in USD, but while you will get USD bills back as change, you won’t get coins. They will round up to the nearest dollar and either pay the difference in ZiG of give you tokens which you can add up and use in the same place when you get enough. And if you’re paying for a visa at the airport, you will be required to pay in USD.

So the bottom line is that US cash isn’t the only currency, or even the official currency of Zimbabwe, it is king in Zimbabwe, and you shouldn’t leave home without it.

Thanks

 

[K-man]

And remember your USD should look pristine. Dollars there get circulated there many times and they generally won't take any from you that are worn-looking. Your change, however will look like it was washed in the Zambezi and dragged behind a donkey.

 

[buck wild]

And remember your USD should look pristine. Dollars there get circulated there many times and they generally won't take any from you that are worn-looking. Your change, however will look like it was washed in the Zambezi and dragged behind a donkey.

That’s for sure. I saw a $1 bill that looked like George Washington himself might have used.

 

[Jeff505]

Sorry if this has been covered, as I didn't read this whole thread. Zim uses the US dollar as its currency and the banks there will often not accept the older USD $100 bill. It needs to be the USD $100 with the blue stripe on the front. I knew this, but apparently other travelers do not. Just FYI !

The $100 needs to be the new style, this was the case a few years ago.

 

[revturbo9967]

And remember your USD should look pristine. Dollars there get circulated there many times and they generally won't take any from you that are worn-looking. Your change, however will look like it was washed in the Zambezi and dragged behind a donkey.

funny you mentioned this, one of the guys in camp asked for a newer 100 as it had a fold in the corner, but we received this 2 dollar bill as change from a toll

 

[deewayne2003]

That’s for sure. I saw a $1 bill that looked like George Washington himself might have used.

Very true, one of the trackers quietly asked me if I would trade him some old small bills for new ones when I was leaving, everyone he gave me looked like the one shown by @revturbo9967 above.

On our trip one of the other hunters tip included several of these older version bills......

Dalton told us that IF the banks accept these bills they will only accept them at a steep discount, so we shuffled money around until they had all blue bills.

 

[revturbo9967]

Very true, one of the trackers quietly asked me if I would trade him some old small bills for new ones when I was leaving, everyone he gave me looked like the one shown by @revturbo9967 above.

On our trip one of the other hunters tip included several of these older version bills......
View attachment 720686


Dalton told us that IF the banks accept these bills they will only accept them at a steep discount, so we shuffled money around until they had all blue bills.

I'm assuming that there were enough counterfeits to cause an issue.