We’re currently in El Salvador, which uses US currency. One big thing we didn’t expect is the wide use of US dollar coins. Mostly Presidential series and SBAs. Our first reaction was WTH is this when given to us as change.
Also, and I don’t know how prevalent this is, I haven’t seen a single coin smaller than a quarter.
At the Texas Roadhouse outside the main gate at Iwakuni, Japan, a Kennedy half dollar was worth 3600 yen in 1965. That was $10 back then.
I guess that’s where they dump the coins that aren’t popular in the US.
We just spent 11 days in Canada from the west coast to the Rockies. Drove 1,900 miles. We didn’t change a single US dollar for a Canadian dollar before we went. We charged everything, most times using the iPhone and maybe 10% of the time using a credit-card wireless tap. Every merchant, restaurant, gas station, and transit service took the electronic payment.
I DID find a Looney in a field on a hike along the Bow River in Banff, so we came home with one Canadian dollar.
I traveled a lot globally in the mid 70s through the early 90s for business and always took care to leave with lots of AMEX Traveler’s Checks. I always came home with piles of coins from various countries that collected in drawers.
How times have changed.