Sunday, May 16, 2010

No Two Hundred Rand Notes, thank you!

You know you are in South Africa when businesses don't want to take the local currency anymore because there are too many counterfeit notes doing the rounds. When I stopped just outside Melkbos to fill up, I saw this sign posted at the filling station. When I asked what the problem was, I was told that there are too many fake R200 notes in South Africa and that the Reserve Bank announced that R200 bills should not be accepted anymore. This only two weeks after I was issued with 15 x R200 notes from the bank when I drew R3000 to pay my UK visa. After being forced to pay by credit card I had 3000 Rand's worth of R200 notes to spend. Fortunately I got rid of all of them, never even thought of checking their authenticity and never questioned by anyone either. A couple of weeks back a whole counterfeiting syndicate was exposed in Parklands. I will not mention the nationality of the counterfeiters, but they were not from South Africa. Just abusing the slack immigration laws and the good business opportunities in South Africa to make their their own money (no pun intended).

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