Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

If you do, simply move to Guinea, and you will quickly become one. The Guinea Franc is their local currency, and it has currently, due to rapid inflation over the past few years, become almost worthless. The highest bill that they have is the 5000 GF, which is worth a bit more than a dollar right now (there is also the 1000, 500, 100 notes and 50 and 25 coins). Thus, when I exchanged $200, I received roughly 900,000 Guinea Franc in return. Unfortunately, the largest bill is not always available from the bank, and so the resulting stack of money in the picture is made up of almost entirely 1000 GF notes. The poor value of the Guinea Franc makes it very hard to use, for if you want to buy anything of worth, you need piles and piles of the money.

One day I accompanied my brother-in-law to the bank, where he had to take out money for the month—building rent, payment of the workers, his salary, etc. and he literally needed a backpack to carry all the bank notes home. Upon returning home, I lifted up the backpack and was surprised upon picking up the backpack to feel the weight of the money, as it is quite dense. We were talking about the possibility of being robbed (which is highly unlikely there, but possible, I guess) and Tim said that he wasn’t too worried, as his heavy backpack of money would make an excellent club-like weapon!

The other thing that I noticed about the Guinea Franc is that it is a quite beat up money. It is very, very dirty; many bills have been torn, they often felt as if they would fall apart in your hands, and they were a bit smelly. So, for less than $250, you, too, can become a millionaire!