Zimbabwe: Where US Dollars Go To Die

I am not curious or intelligent enough to know why this is the case, but the dollar bills in Zimbabwe are fucking filthy.

The official currency here is the US dollar, the Zimbabwe dollar doesn’t even exist anymore. The stores don’t carry change, they just round up to the next dollar with lollipops, chocolate bars or mobile phone credit.

Some of the bills you get are barely readable, and they all have that leathery, grandpa texture of something that’s been wrinkled and stroked a thousand times too many. I went to the cash machine yesterday and got a wad of twenties that ran the whole filthiness rainbow.

Also, there are $2 bills everywhere here. I thought those were a myth.

Next time anyone talks about ‘dirty money’, this is the first thing I’m going to think of.