Funny Money

From Dark Roasted Blend, this fascinating article:

Funny Money: Unusual and Fascinating Currency

Graphical Marvels, Forged Notes, Hyperinflation "Riches" and Propaganda Bed Sheets

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value - zero."
(Voltaire, 1694-1778)

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For years I've been collecting foreign coins. Thanks to one of my Brit friends I met online, I have one of these coins:

50 pence or "p".

It was also fascinating to me to learn that they also have no one pound paper note. Several times we (Americans) have tried with little success to convert to dollar coins. I like the idea and would use them, DID use them when they came out.

I once worked in a convenience store and during the shift change, when the register was being counted, the girl I was relieving proudly showed me three Mexican coins she had taken in payment for one of the store's specials, 3 burritos for a dollar. She took them as fifty cent pieces, which they resembled. but were 20 peso pieces. She took $1.50 of her own money and told me she was taking the coins home, she now had "60 Mexican dollars!". I took a quarter out of my own pocket, walked outside to the newspaper vending machine, purchased an Amarillo paper (75 cents now!!!), took it inside and opened to the paper's financial pages where I showed her that a peso - at the time- was worth something like one-fourth of a US cent, which made her investment come to the sum total of about fifteen cents. (she gave out more change with the burritos than that)

She looked so distressed that I put the buck and a half in the register and took the coins. Checking today's rate, my 60 pesos are now worth $4.58. I also have quite a few other Mexican and South American country coins, plus some from various European nations. I've researched them and found that a few are worth more than face value because they have become collector's items.