ZIMBABWE'S black marketeers have found a new money-spinner: they're selling old Zimbabwe dollar banknotes to western souvenir hunters.

The 100-trillion dollar note can fetch up to £20, reports said yesterday.

American and European visitors are snapping up the out-of- circulation bills in Victoria Falls to sell back home, according to the Bulawayo-based Chronicle newspaper.

Bank tellers in the resort town have joined the trade, offering foreign clients Zimbabwe dollars under the counter.

Zimbabwe officially abolished its local currency last April, two months after the formation of a power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Finance minister Tendai Biti said then that the Zimbabwe dollar was "dead". But controversial central bank chief Gideon Gono – the president's personal banker – has made no secret of the fact he would like to see the Zimbabwe dollar back in circulation, this time anchored on gold.

The life of Zimbabwe's banknotes during nearly a decade of inflation and then hyperinflation was notoriously short-lived.

The red 500-dollar note, introduced in 2001, was nicknamed "Ferrari" because it went so fast.

Shoppers struggled with sports bags full of cash for small transactions: in 2008, one egg cost 50 billion dollars.

The 100 trillion-dollar bill was introduced in January 2009. By then, the Central Statistical Office had admitted it could no longer provide annual inflation figures: the last recorded figure was 231 million per cent for July 2008. The International Monetary Fund says the rate peaked at the end of 2008 at 500 billion per cent.

During the past two years, it was often cheaper to use banknotes instead of toilet paper, especially when widespread shortages meant loo-roll was not always easy to find.

Billion, million and 100,000-dollar bills were a common sight in drains or lying on the pavements. Street children barely bothered to pick them up.

Mike Bert, an American tourist, told the Chronicle that he had bought six 100-trillion dollar banknotes from a street dealer for US$90 (£56).

"When I get back home to Chicago, these notes will fetch me some good monies because they are in demand," he said.

The only banknote still used in Zimbabwe is the 50 billion-dollar bill, which is given as change on commuter buses.

Other notes are sold privately as wrapping paper and money for a local version of Monopoly. The notes are available on Ebay: sellers offer collectors' sets.

By Jane Fields - New Scotsman