I got a soft spot for collecting hyperinflated currencies governed by supreme dictators, autocratic leaders, mass murderers, despots and tyrants.
Best when they have their faces on it.
Most of them are republics. This collection took me quite awhile as the currencies had been out of print, new currencies printed where the monsters had been replaced, displaced, left somewhere or best - assassinated.
Vladimir Lenin - Soviet Union. The murders carried out during and immediately after the Bolshevik Revolution number in the hundreds of thousands. The overall death toll of Marxist-Leninist ideologies in the Soviet Union and the neighboring states easily exceeds ten million, much of it credited to Lenin's protege, Joseph Stalin.
Saddam Hussein - Iraq the absolute ruler of Iraq up until his capture and eventual execution by US forces aligned with the United States of America. Saddam espoused a blend of nationalism and secular socialism. It is estimated that at least 200,000 people were murdered by Hussein's regime, and some researchers place the number closer to 600,000.
Operation Red Dawn was the U.S. military mission on December 13, 2003, that captured Saddam Hussein. Executed by Joint Special Operations Task Force 121 and the 1st Brigade Combat Team, the operation located the former Iraqi dictator in a "spider hole" near a farmhouse in Ad Dawr, Tikrit. He was subsequently tried, convicted of crimes against humanity, and executed.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi - Libya
assassinated after being captured by rebels during the Libyan Civil War. Gaddafi's legacy is perhaps a bit more nuanced, although there is little doubt that he was a tyrant and that his regime made little distinction between rebel fighters and their civilian supporters, killing the latter by the thousands.
Bashar al-Assad of Syria, deposed in 2024. Another ruthless, notionally socialism-aligned ruler during a period of a bloody civil war. The regime's death toll is estimated in the excess of 100,000, with numerous war crimes against civilian populations documented along the way
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the theocratic dictatorship in Iran and the de facto leader of the country for many years after. Tens of thousands perished in the midst of the Islamic revolution in the late 1970s; millions have to live under the oppressive, fundamentalist ideology.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution. A martyr of the international communist movement, His youthful charm aside, he was also a brutal leader known for summarily executing captured enemies, and a co-architect of a comparatively less oppressive yet profoundly miserable communist regime on the island:
Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier - Haiti, a totalitarian leader trying to build a personality cult. An anti-communist trying to garner support of the United States, he was responsible for the murder of perhaps 40,000 of his compatriots.
Suharto - Indonesia, a military leader who carried out a coup and then acted as the second president of the country from 1967 to 1998. An anti-communist crusader who modernized the country and helped greatly increase the standard of living, Nevertheless, he is also believed to have been one of the most corrupt politicians in modern history; Amnesty International estimates the spoils of his regime to exceed $15 billion
Samuel K. Doe - Liberia. A military ruler whose anti-communist leanings earned him the support of the United States. Known for carrying out massacres of civilians; later tortured and executed by his opponents.
Hastings Banda - Malawi. A well-traveled anti-communist crusader supported by the West throughout the Cold War. Remembered for economic accomplishments, but also for torturing and executing perhaps more than 10,000 people.
Murtala Ramat Muhammed - Nigeria, a military commander assassinated less than a year into the role of the leader of the nation. His military track record is perhaps more damning than his brief stint as a civilian leader. In the latter capacity, he pursued authoritarian social policies but embraced economic liberalization and free enterprise; during the war, his unit implemented scorched earth policies and summarily executed civilians during one of the world's bloodiest civil wars.
Siaka Stevens - Sierra Leone a communist-aligned kleptocratic ruler who - like some of his peers - established a faux democracy while simultaneously outlawing political opposition. He also had a penchant for bribing or killing off dissidents.
Saparmurat Niyazov - Turkmenistan, a communist father of the nation and its ruler for life. Obsessed with his image to the point of constructing a towering golden statue of himself in the capital and forcing all schoolchildren to read his autobiography. Turkmenistan a relatively poor and isolated country.
Mobutu Sese Seko - Zaire a despotic African leader known for a peculiar and economically-devastating brand of nationalism that rejected the tenets of both capitalism and socialism; his politics aside, he is remembered for orchestrating purges. Deposed and exiled.
King Nayendra of Nepal. Nepal's monarchy under the Shah dynasty ( 240 years of rule ) ended in 2006, when Maoist-led mass protests forced Shah, who had seized power and imposed emergency rule, to reinstate parliament. In 2008, a constituent assembly formally abolished the monarchy and declared Nepal a secular federal democratic republic.
Yes, who can forget The Supreme Leader from North Korea...
P/S - still actively looking for Central Africa currency under despotic crazy Mobassa and Idi Amin from Uganda.
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