Have you ever found some old foreign money you had forgotten about?
Some of us probably share this problem. I have sometimes found, in the unlikeliest places, old foreign currency. That's probably a function of the fact that I have made a couple dozen household moves over my lifetime, but never mind that.
A few years ago, I came across a small container with a mixture of old foreign currency.
I did a cursory internet search and decided that it was all worthless and put it away.
But I got more curious and found out a couple of things. For the English pound notes, it turned out that they can actually be exchanged for the current pound coins. On a visit to London last year, I decided to make it an adventure.
The experience was priceless. I had about £7 in notes, so I walked up the street from our hotel in the heart of London.
First bank: No, sir. Those are not proper currency and we can't deal with them.
Second bank: What? I've never seen anything like this. You might have better luck with a bigger bank.
Third bank: Pound notes? Never heard of them. Let me make a phone call. Long conversation. Then, "Apparently, we can actually convert them." He then takes my old pound notes and puts them in an envelope. Then, instead of going to a teller to take money from the till, he reaches into his pocket and hands me the appropriate amount of pound coins. I would dearly love to know what happened next.
Now I'm getting ready for a trip to Belgium and I have 200 old Belgian francs. Today's exchange rate puts that at about US$5.00 so hardly a major transaction
I've learned that the Belgian national bank (as with all Euro-area countries) will exchange the old bills for Euros. Since the national bank is a very short walk from the Grand Place in Brussels, I'll try it out.
Next on the list is some old German Deutschmarks I have from the same stash. The German national bank is right in the heart of Frankfurt, so that should be easy as well.
I wonder if anyone else has had an interesting time converting old money.
Some of us probably share this problem. I have sometimes found, in the unlikeliest places, old foreign currency. That's probably a function of the fact that I have made a couple dozen household moves over my lifetime, but never mind that.
A few years ago, I came across a small container with a mixture of old foreign currency.
I did a cursory internet search and decided that it was all worthless and put it away.
But I got more curious and found out a couple of things. For the English pound notes, it turned out that they can actually be exchanged for the current pound coins. On a visit to London last year, I decided to make it an adventure.
The experience was priceless. I had about £7 in notes, so I walked up the street from our hotel in the heart of London.
First bank: No, sir. Those are not proper currency and we can't deal with them.
Second bank: What? I've never seen anything like this. You might have better luck with a bigger bank.
Third bank: Pound notes? Never heard of them. Let me make a phone call. Long conversation. Then, "Apparently, we can actually convert them." He then takes my old pound notes and puts them in an envelope. Then, instead of going to a teller to take money from the till, he reaches into his pocket and hands me the appropriate amount of pound coins. I would dearly love to know what happened next.
Now I'm getting ready for a trip to Belgium and I have 200 old Belgian francs. Today's exchange rate puts that at about US$5.00 so hardly a major transaction
I've learned that the Belgian national bank (as with all Euro-area countries) will exchange the old bills for Euros. Since the national bank is a very short walk from the Grand Place in Brussels, I'll try it out.
Next on the list is some old German Deutschmarks I have from the same stash. The German national bank is right in the heart of Frankfurt, so that should be easy as well.
I wonder if anyone else has had an interesting time converting old money.
