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Now nobody wants the "bond coins" it put in circulation last
month to replace the lollipops, chewing gum and pens that have
been used in lieu of change for transactions in shops.
Adopting the U.S. dollar as your own currency, as Ecuador has
also done, not only raises questions about money supply,
monetary policy and national sovereignty.
Zimbabwe's "coin conundrum" also highlights the day-to-day
difficulties that people encounter when their economy takes such
a path.
The paper greenback is readily acceptable, but getting U.S.
coins en masse to put into circulation is a different matter.
So Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya introduced
the new "bond coins" last month. They are named after a $50
million bond that was floated to mint and import them from
neighboring South Africa.
The new coins have the same denominations and value as U.S.
cents but can only be used in Zimbabwe.
Trouble is, not many people want to use them because they think
they will not be able to persuade others to accept them. Some
also fear the coins could be a first step towards the return of
the dreaded Zimbabwe dollar.
The beggars' universal cry is "spare any change", but in
Zimbabwe they can be choosers on the issue.
At a traffic light in the capital Harare, a Reuters
correspondent gave an insistent beggar a handful of bond coins,
which provoked a burst of laughter and a "no thanks" before he
scrambled to the next car.
Shouting matches erupt on the streets when the touts who ride
with taxi drivers and dispense change to passengers try to pass
off the bond coins to them.
"We have people who just refuse the coins because they say they
will not be able to use them. They prefer the rand coins (of
South Africa)," said Lyn Kahari, a shop assistant at a grocer in
a Harare suburb.
Reserve Bank Governor Mangudya told the state-owned Herald
newspaper last week that only $2.5 million worth of coins were
in circulation out of the $10 million that had been imported. He
said the low uptake of the coins was a result of commercial
banks not making larger orders from the central bank.
The scepticism is rooted in the memories Zimbabweans have of
hyperinflation, which reached 500 billion percent with prices
changing more than twice a day before the government of
President Robert Mugabe abandoned a currency that had been
rendered worthless.
(Editing by Ed Stoddard and Giles Elgood)
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