COIN REVEAL: Gold Standard Return to Africa?

Today's coin reveal post features the 2022 1oz 22-carat fine gold coin that has recently been released by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Photographer: Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

On the 25th July 2022, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issued 1,500 1oz 22-carat gold coins called ‘Mosi-Oa-Tunya’, which means “Smoke that thunders”. The interesting news is that these gold coins can be used as legal tender within Zimbabwe.

Apparently there are another 2,000 of these coins in the pipeline for future release. The coins can be purchased by residents in Zimbabwe using their local currency, the US dollar or other foreign currencies.

The ‘Mosi-Oa-Tunya’ name refers to the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe that are a very popular tourist attraction within the country. I was actually fortunate enough to visit Victoria Falls as a kid during a family holiday. It was an amazing experience and highly recommended if you ever find yourself in that part of the world.

About eight months ago I wrote a post about some Zimbabwean Silver Coins in my stack, in that post I wrote about the hyperinflation that Zimbabwe experienced between 2007 - 2009. At the height of Zimbabwe's inflation issues it was estimated that the peak month-on-month inflation reached 79.6 billion percent and a year-on-year inflation of 89.7 sextillion percent.

As a result of the hyperinflation Zimbabwe abandoned their local currency and relied solely on the currency of other countries for a period of time. There is a very well known photo from Wikipedia of a one hundred trillion Zimbabwean dollar note that was issued at the time (Z$100,000,000,000,000).

Sourced from Wikipedia

If a country like Zimbabwe, that has been battling inflation for many years, has finally come to the realisation that gold may be an answer to their monetary woes, then perhaps there is hope for other countries around the world to start relying more on gold again too.

This move by Zimbabwe is a very tiny drop in the world financial ocean, but perhaps this is a drop that helps to start the storm that the world so desperately needs in order to return to sound money once again.

We may not see an official gold standard reintroduced for a very long time, if ever, but many people are starting to reawaken to the importance and soundness of gold. Friends and acquaintances of mine are approaching me more frequently these days to ask more questions about gold. Some of them have already made their first gold purchases, while others are still in the investigation stage.

As world inflation continues to take hold and the overall price of living continues to pressure the middle class, I strongly believe that more and more people will start looking for ways to preserve their wealth and buying power. 🥇

Post authored by @strenue