I was in Somalia in 1986. The Central Bank has run out of Somali Shillings, and needed more due to the rampant inflation. The largest denomination was a 20 Shilling note that was worth about 12 cents at that time.
They ordered additional currency notes from an Italian printer, but the printer insisted in being paid in hard currency, which Somalia did not have. After about a month of a severe currency shortage, in which it was impossible to buy so much as a loaf of bread, the US finally paid the printer directly to release the print job.
The money was flown into the airport and loaded in wooden crates onto a flatbed truck. The plan was to drive the truck to the Central Bank, which was across the street from the apartment building where I lived.
I was on my fifth floor balcony when the truck turned the corner about three blocks away to get to the bank. On the street was a solid mass of people. There must have been 20,000 packed into those three blocks. As the truck crept up the street, men jumped up onto flatbed and pried open the crates, and took the money and threw it in the air. The crowd would grab as much money as they could and run away, while more people poured into the street.
It took about an hour for the truck to go those three blocks, and when it arrived, all the money was gone. The crowds melted away, and after about a half hour, the truck drove away down the quiet street, having offloaded nothing.
It was one of the most extraordinary things I have ever seen.
That’s a fun story. We’re really all the same, I realize now.
Re: “It was one of the most extraordinary things I have ever seen.”
That is an amazing story.
You could build a movie script around a scene like that.
I’m thinking about a truck in route to the Federal Reserve Bank in the Wall Street District as thousands of crazed, panicked traders rip open crates of US Dollars.