They're orange, purple, red, or green and worth a little more than 1½ times the monetary value of the dollar. And in the place of stern-faced gentlemen is the slight smile of a young Queen Elizabeth II on each banknote. They vary in size, in length and in height, and have shiny metallic bands on them. All in all, they're more eye-catching and diverse then the money I've grown up with.
Besides the fact that when I first arrived my measly thousand dollars dwindled down to an even more measly six-hundred-and-something pounds, I find the pound sterling, also commonly referred to as quid, fun to live with and use. As I suppose it is for any visitor of a foreign country, I can't seem but to view this currency as play money or Monopoly money, like it's not real.
The coins are actually the most fun. The coin worth one pound is about the size of a nickle, but gold-colored, and thick as two stacked nickles. There's even a coin worth two pounds that's large, like a 50 cent coin, and two toned, having a silver center, and gold-colored outer ring. These coins, in particular, remind me of gold nuggets, like I'm Robin Hood or a pirate, keeping a sac of precious treasure. They're fun!
Here, since the pound is worth a bit more, I find a lot of foods from offies or grocery stores are below £1. (Mind you, a dollar will get you nothing in the States!) So, I can't help feel that everything is really cheap. But its not, I have to keep reminding myself to multiply prices by 1.6 to really compare the price to American ones. I'll make a comparative list of prices and goods sometime soon, so you can get a feel for what people are paying for things out on this island!
♡ - Kristen
they have a monkey/ape on their coin :) how fun!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's my favorite. It's a salute to Charles Darwin, so it's kind of a "fuck you" coin to the non-evolutionist Bible thumpers.
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