Money in Europe
The Euro
The euro is used in Europe. In 1992 was decided to use the euro. First they want to call it the ecu, but the German didn’t like that name. They thought the euro sounds better. Almost all of the countries that are in the European union use the euro. The countries liked the idea that they had one coin to pay in the whole European union. Apart from England. In 2002 the euro was introduced. England is in the European union but they didn’t use the euro. They use the British pound. Switzerland is almost in the middle of Europe, but they aren’t at the European union so they won’t use the Euro. In Switzerland they use the Swiss Franc. The Swiss Franc is also used in Liechtenstein.
history
Guilder
The Netherlands had the guilder. The guilder was used till 2002. One guilder was about 45 euro cent. In the Netherlands they decided to use the euro. It was signed in Maastricht.
Italian Lira
In Italy they used the Italian Lira. Also in 2002 the lira was changed for the euro. The Exchange rate is 1 euro was 1936 lira. It was a big difference between the lira and the euro but when Italy went by the European union they had to use the euro. There were coins of 5, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000. They also had banknotes of 1000, 2000, 5000, 10.000, 50.000, 100.000 and 500.000.
German Mark
Before the euro Germany used the German mark. They use it for 52 years, since 1948 till 2002. 1 euro was about 2 German mark. There are two countries who used the German mark, too. These countries were Kosovo and Montenegro.
Spanish Peseta
Spain used the Spanish peseta before the euro. It was used in Spain and Andorra. 1 euro is the same as 166 pesetas. It was used since 1869. The word peseta comes from the Catalan word Pesseta and it means part or piece.
Norwegian Krone, Swedish Krona and Markka
Norway and Sweden are in Europe, but they aren’t in the European union. Norway have the Norwegian krone it is used since 1875. One Norwegian Krone is 0,1 euro. That’s a big difference. In Sweden they use the Swedish Krona. The exchange rate is one swedish krona is 0,1 euro. You should think Finland isn’t at the European union because Norway and Sweden aren’t that too, but Finland really is at the European union. When they didn’t had the euro. They had the Markka. One euro is 6 Markka.
The American Dollar
The dollar is used in America since 1792. This kind of dollar is also used in the international trade with the rest of the world, since the second world war. The dollar is losing his mark of biggest kind of money in the world, because the euro is coming up. Also the Chinese renminbi is coming up on the word rank list. The dollar was a couple centuries ago a little bit copied from the Spanish dollar, used in Spanish America from the 16th up to the 19th century. the currency as we know it today didn’t had faces on it. The earliest version of the dollar in the USA didn’t had faces of presidents on both sides of the coins and paper notes. Before there were faces on both sides of the coins and paper notes there were figures from the Greek and Roman mythology on both sides of the coins and paper notes until the 20th century. The paper notes are printed on green paper because green is a safe colour.
The British Pound
Although the UK is part of Europe, it has a different currency. The pond is used in the United Kingdom since 760, when it called the Silver Penny.The British pound is the oldest one in use in the world. The pound is created in the Roman times. In 1694 were the paper notes introduced. One year later, the central bank was introduced the Bank of England. The pound was also used in colonies of the British Empire. When the Brexit came known by everybody, it went very bad with the British pound.
The Japanese Yen
After the second world war the yen and dollar were aligned. 360 yen was 1 dollar. This system was used till 1971 when Richard Nixon became president in the USA. He decided that it wasn’t possible to change money into gold anymore. In 1976 Japan reduced the export of many products, but the trade surplus remained high.Foreign partners sought an appreciation of the yen that Japanese products would become more expensive abroad and slowed export growth. The Japanese Yen is the third most traded currency in the world, and the most heavily traded currency in Asia. The yen is in use since the 8th century. The coins were imitated from the Chinese coins. When Japan wasn’t able to make them self the Chinese coins were very important in the country. Around the 15th century, the minting of gold and silver coins known as Koshu Kin was encouraged and gold coinage was soon made into the new standard currency. By the 19th century, the Spanish dollar were being used in Japan, along with local currencies. In 1871 The New Currency Act developed a monetary system similar to the European one, with a decimal account system. After World War 2 the yen lost almost all his value, and in 1971 fixed the exchange rate to the US dollar at a rate of 308 yen = 1 US dollar.
Credits:
Created with images by Michiel2005 - "Preparing for the end of the Euro – Ten golden guilders"