Uganda in the early seventies, only hard Western currency could actually buy anything. The local bumf was like confetti and people just gave it away... it was hell for the impoverished majority, but visitors just floated uncomfortably on a raft of (real) money. All the currency was illegal unless you paid ludicrous amounts at the official rate of exchange. One had to shed a tenner (sterling) at short regular intervals just to go unmolested... people in uniform were doing all right but no one else was.
I've got some scruffy old banknotes from back then, including a Ugandan five-shilling note, by then worth the square root of FA. It came in a handful of change in a foreigners-only shop in Maputo that also included English, French and Spanish coins and a few SA rands... Biggest denomination I have is a Zimbabwean five billion dollar note. I was never there though, someone gave it to me.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 13 Dec 15 at 14:20
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More Local Lunacy 
More Local Lunacy 