In theory, and in fact, I was once a millionaire, just not in a way that was life-changing or meaningful. Let me tell you how I reached that status, because everyone can do it.
Many years ago, I collected coins and banknotes from around the world. Old and new ones. I was never a serious collector, but I did like the design, colour, and numbers on them. Some can even be valuable to a collector, but like stamp collecting, most are not worth much, if anything at all.
When I was a boy, I would find them at rummage sales. While they have long gone out of fashion, rummage sales were great places to find a bargain. Any old coins and banknotes I found would be tucked away in an old Quality Street tin box. I’d dream that one day in the future they might be worth more than the pennies I paid for them.
That day never arrived, and I forget what I did with them, but none are with me today.
It was approximately fifteen years ago when, one Sunday morning, I came across a box of old coins and banknotes at a car-boot sale (the UK equivalent of a flea market). One of the banknotes took my interest.
It was from Zimbabwe, and the number written on it stood out — one million dollars. In fact, there were three of them, and I bought them. They did not cost much, just a few pounds, but from then on I could say to everyone that I was a millionaire.
Actually, I was a multi-millionaire.
Well, at the time that they were issued in Zimbabwe, I would have been a multi-millionaire. But that’s not saying much, because the country was suffering from hyperinflation. Just about everyone in Zimbabwe became a millionaire at some point. Then a few years later they all became billionaires.
As inflation destroyed the Zimbabwe economy, people would join Elon Musk in becoming trillionaires. Which in itself is an interesting trivia question.
Recently Musk became the world’s “official” first trillionaire, yet throughout economic history, hyperinflation has created many trillionaires. Just not meaningful ones. In Zimbabwe, the highest-value banknote had a face value of 100 trillion dollars.
And at the time, it was enough to buy a loaf of bread.
And the banknotes were not really worth anything to a collector, either. In England, they were worth a few pounds.
I no longer have mine, like the coins and banknotes I collected as a boy, they have found new homes. For anyone who would like to achieve millionaire, billionaire, or trillionaire status, the Zimbabwe banknotes can still be bought online today.
But what about the value of money elsewhere, and at different times?
Every year, inflation guarantees that money loses value over time.
So, I did a little test. The start of the swinging sixties, 1960. What is the value of one million 1960 British pounds today, in real terms?
£1,000,000 in 1960.
You would need.
£25,210,251.67 in 2026.
Here’s the calculator.
Zimbabwe hyperinflation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe
Image — Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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