Despite the popularity of credit and debit cards worldwide, cash is still widely accepted. That’s why I often visit my favorite Currency Exchange to get local currency before travelling. Additionally, I may use ATMs and Currency Exchange Bureaus at my destinations. As a result, I come home with a couple banknotes and coins that I often keep as souvenirs. This practice has given me a small collection of world money. From my younger travel days, I have a few that are no longer in use, be it money taken out of circulation by new editions or fully replaced by another currency. Let’s take a peek at part of my collection!
Pre-Euro Coins
In the early 90s I backpacked Western Europe with a friend. How travel has changed since then! On that trip I used Traveller’s Cheques to buy local currency. Plus, European countries had their own banknotes and coins. The names of the currencies were different in these countries with the occasional exception, such as the franc (both France and Switzerland used their own francs). Years later the Euro (EUR) was introduced and was adopted by a number of European Union (EU) members. According to Wikipedia, the name Euro was first used in 1995 and became an accounting currency in 1999 with banknotes and coins entering circulation in 2002.
Here are a few of the old coins I still have:
- Austrian Schilling (ATS) in use from 1925 to 1938 and 1945 until 2002
- Dutch Guilder (NLG) in use from 1434 until 2002
- French Franc (FRF) in use from 1380 until 2002
- German Deutsche Mark (DEM) in use from 1948 to 1990 in West Germany and in unified Germany from 1990 to 2002
- Italian Lira (ITL) – in use from 1861 until 2002
Out of Circulation
The business of money seems a complicated matter. Sometimes countries replace their currencies with a new stronger edition, remove low value currency, replace paper with coin, or even substitute their currency with that of another country. Here are a few of the currencies I have that are no longer legal tender.
Canadian Dollar (CAD) – The $2 note was phased out in 1996 and as of 2021 is longer legal tender. It was replaced with the $2 coin, nicknamed “toonie”, similar sounding to the $1 coin nicknamed “loonie” (owing to a loon pictured on the reverse of the coin)
Mexican Peso (MXP) was replaced by the “neuvo peso” (MXN) in 1993 due to revaluation. The process was done with little problem or confusion.
Swedish Krona (SEK) are divided into 100 öre with coin denominations in values of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, and 50 yet they were phased out over the years with the introduction of cash rounding with the 50 öre being phased out in 2010
Venezuelan Bolivar (VEB)was redenominated due to inflation 2008 with the hard bolivar and twice more in 2018 (sovereign bolivar) and 2021 (digital bolivar)
Current Currencies
Even if a particular currency is constant it often has updates for various reasons such as cost of production, adding security measures, or updating to a modern design. As I sifted through my collection for this post, these are the coins and banknotes I chose to show, each having its own unique designs and colours. These, as far as I know, are legal tender in their respective countries.
Bahamian Dollar (BSD)
Egyptian Pound (EGP)
Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)
Macau Pataca (MOP)
Macedonian Denar (MKD)
Unexpected Coin
I picked this one up as a ‘bonus souvenir’ in 2021 when I couldn’t pay cash for the postcards and stamps I wanted. Who knew that a minimum spend on a credit card at the Vatican Museum gift shop would have me picking a Euro coin for my collection?
- Vatican City commemorative souvenir coin and stamp (€0.50 cent coin)
Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed this world tour by way of coins and banknotes. And as I go along, I plan to continue to collect some more pocket change on my wanders around this wonderful world of ours.
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