Inflation on Stamps

[2dblue 10]

Zimbabwe as we know has reflected the massive rise in inflation on their stamps.

 

What other countries (with the exception of Germany - we all know this one)

have also indicated massive inflation values on their stamps?

 

There are more - lets test the team.

 

Rgds

 

Colin

 

 

[/b]

[dstorm 10]

Can we say Hungary?

[kennyn 10]

Hi Colin

Off hand can think of China just after the war,Greece 1942-54,Russian states after break up in early 90s,Roumania post war,most South American countries at one time or another,ie Brazil 30s and early 40s

Must be plenty more

Regards

Kenny

[seahorsefanatic 10]

Hi Colin

 

Other than all the countries that Kenny mentioned, one can also look closer to home to countries like Zambia, Uganda etc in the 80's which was not as severe but still a hefty increase. Looking at South Africa where postage cost 4c in the early 80's to R2,05 in 2009. This may be over nearly 30 years but the postage increased 50 times.

 

In our case one could argue that the postage rate was heavily subsidized by the goverment.

 

Zimbabwe's case is extreme but I am convinced that this period in their history in going to show as a very good investment area for the future.

 

With regard the cost of postage over a period of time, where can one get the postal rates that applied to South Africa say from 1910 till present ? This is esential to studying the postage due applied by the post office.

[2dblue 10]

What can I say, obviously we have a wealth of knowledge amongst the members - well done

 

Rgds

 

Colin

[kennyn 10]

Hi All

Some more info on inflation

 

Romania,despite leaving the gold standard in 1914, managed to restrict the devaluation of their currency fairly well,the Lei only losing about 5% of its value against the dollar between 1929-1941.

An ill fated Alliance to Germany , and the inevitable outcome led to high post war inflation culminating in the overthrow of King Michael and subsequent communist takeover.

The currency had devalued to such an extent that a 5 million lei banknote was neccesary and the largest denomination stamp was the 50,000 lei red- orange issue depicting the soon to be deposed king.

The communist government on the 15th August 1947,unexpectedly revalued the currency ,with 20,000 old lei now worth 1 new lei.No one had been able to convert old into new,thus the middle and upper classes wealth was wiped out in one foul swoop.

Further devaluations took place in the 1950,s before the exchange rate was fixed by the Govt,not that anyone outside wanted Lei and not that anyone inside Romania was allowed to exchange them anyway!

The fall of communism brought serious unflationary pressure which topped 300% in three consecutive years until 1993.

This was brought under control and Romania has since joined the European Union and is expected to adopt the Euro in 2014.

Regards

Kenny

[kennyn 10]

Hi All

Some mind boggling inflation statistics

 

 

Hungary,after the second world war suffered the highest inflation ever,although Zimbabwe in the last month has probably claimed that unwelcome title.

They issued the highest denomination note ever the 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengo(100 quintillion).

Currency reform took place on 18 Aug 1946 when lucky citizens could exchange 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengos for 1 new florint.

Once again it would appear that Russia had a hand in order to destroy the upper classes.

 

Greece,torn apart by the Second World War,saw the drachma devalue 2,000,000,000 fold between 1942 and 1944,by which time the monthly inflation rate had climbed to 9 billion%

 

And of course our new World Record holder,dear old Zimbabwe.In 1980,the Zim Dollar was worth slightly more than the US dollar.Due in no small part to Bobs wonderful agricultural and economic reforms,he managed to perform miracles by keeping inflation at 600% in 2004,down to 100% in 2005,a slight mishap in 2006 when it touched 1700%.

But the best was yet to come.On Aug 1st 2006,he solved all the problems by changing 1000 dollars into 1 new dollar.This helped significantly in hedging the inflation rate at 11000% by June 2007.By the following month it was full spead ahead with the proud proclamation that annual inflation had just topped the 2 billion % mark. Zim citizens were encouraged to holiday abroad when 17 years of freedom was celebrated by the announcement that 1 US Dollar could now be exchanged for a mere 688 billion of the Zim equivalent.

Robert was not daunted and decided to level matters again by lopping 10 zeroes of his currency.But then another change of direction when having obviously heard of Hungarys great post war achievement,he decided to pull out all the stops and had managed to reach an annual inflation rate of 516,000,000,000,000,000,000% by Nov 2008.The economy was further stimulated by neccesitating the shopkeepers to reprice their goods every hour,thus employing millions of staff and buying billions of tons of meter gun labels.Oh well that might have been the case had they had anything to sell.

Bobs latest magnanimous gesture to the citizens of Zimbabwe is to totally defy the world recession by instantly creating 13 million trillionaires with the much heralded launch of the 100 trillion dollar note on Jan 18th 2009.

 

Cheers Kenny