On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:36:27 +0100, wrote:

"Charles Ellson" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:46:33 +0100, wrote:

ITYF the USD is a universal black-market currency in countries where
the economy has gone tits-up, possibly accompanied to a lesser degree
by Sterling and Euros or any more local "trusted" foreign currency.

Euros yes, but I do not think that sterling would be a universal
black-market currency.

I did say "lesser degree". My late mother worked for a subsidiary of
censored in the 1960s/1970s and was aware of dodgy goings-on in the
Middle East where the "agency fee" for some government officials and
company agents took the form of payment in IIRC "gold pounds" which
was presumably a reference to payment in sovereigns. I would not be
surprised if there had been a double fiddle of the coins being
accounted for at face value to diminish the apparent size of the
alleged "fees".

I would also expect that rands would be the hard currency of choice in
southern Africa, as a substantial part of the Zimbabwean population is in
South Africa.