One of the minor yet important changes about going to another country is getting used to the currency. Now mind you, it didn't take too long to get used to the Euro (besides forcing myself to stop doing conversions every time I wanted to buy something). But my heart breaks a little each time I open my wallet and don't see good ol' Canadian dollars.
Now we could argue all day about whether Europe should be on the Euro and whether Europe represents an optimum currency area (thanks Prof. Abramson!); but that's the way it is, so let's ignore that discussion for the time being. I should say though that the Euro makes travelling sooooo much easier. I did a trip a few years back where I travelled to England, France, Holland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Spain and had to work with 7 different currencies. Nowadays, I think the same trip requires 3 currencies.
The Euro bills not only have different colours for the different denominations but also different sizes. These features coupled with the fact that I can read, it makes identifying a bill very easy. However, what I do find difficult is differentiating between the coins. They have €2, €1, 50 cent, 20 cent, 10 cent and 5 cent coins in circulation in Holland. The problem is that the €2, €1 and 50 cent coins are pretty close in size and so are the 20 cent and 10 cent coins. This makes using coins difficult as I almost have to pick up each coin and individually identify them.
Finally, another great thing about the Euro and Holland is that they round to the nearest 5 cents. Anyone at the Bank of Canada listening? It's like forced "Give a penny, take a penny" and it works quite nicely. A single penny can buy next to nothing these days and you always have too many or too little to complete a transaction. So why not get rid of it in Canada?
Teeks
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