Somalia operated without a functioning central bank or formal monetary policy for over two decades, leading ordinary citizens to use high-quality counterfeit shillings as their actual everyday standard currency.

A closer look

Somalia operated without a functioning central bank or formal monetary policy for over two decades, leading ordinary citizens to use high-quality counterfeit shillings as their actual everyday standard currency. Since there was no official government institution left to regulate the money supply or arrest anybody for forgery, entrepreneurial warlords just started printing their own cash to keep commerce flowing. Eventually, everybody in the market simply accepted the fake bills at face value because they needed a medium of exchange to buy livestock and food. It perfectly proves that the global economy is a giant scam where literally anything can become valid legal tender as long as enough desperate people agree to pretend it has value