Ok, I think I have the currency (pounds and euro(s) down, now let's talk coins. how do they work? We have the penny, nickle, dime, quarter - what does England and France have?

For the 12 Euro zone countries, the Euro is the unit of currency and is divided into 100 smaller units called cent; coins come in the following denominations: 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent,<BR>10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, 1 euro, and 2 euro<BR><BR>For the UK the currency is the Pound Sterling, and is likewise divided into 100 units called pence (p) coins come in these denominations: 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, 1 pound and 2 pounds

And the one-cent euro coins are totally useless, and no shopkeepers want to deal with them, so try to avoid collecting bunches of them.

Thanks! The only part I don't understand is when you say 1 or 2 euros, and 1 or 2 pounds. Are you saying this is the currency? the only units of currency? surely not.

Betty--You asked about coins. The two lists I mentioned above are coins. England is in the UK and uses the pound, France is one of the 12 countries using the Euro. The bills are also similar:<BR><BR>Euro notes come as 5 euro, 10 euro, 20 euro, 50 euro, 100, euro, 200 euro, and 500 euro. <BR><BR>Sterling notes come in 5, 10, 20 or 50 pound denominations.<BR><BR>It takes ROUGHLY 90 cents US to buy a euro, so for convenience sake, think of a dollar and a euro being close in value.<BR><BR>It takes ROUGHLY $1.50 US to buy 1 pound sterling, so if something costs 10 pounds, it will require ABOUT $15 US to buy it.<BR><BR>exact currency exchange rates and more info can be found at www.oanda.com <BR><BR>If you are in England, you will only spend pounds sterling; when you are in France you will only spend Euro.<BR>I hope this answers your question, Barb

Betty your question was what do they call their coins. You were correct on what the currency is called. For example the USA is the dollar, England the pound, France the euro. So you can have 3 dollars, 3 pounds or 3 euro. The dollar is divided into 100 cents, the pound into 100 pence and the euro into 100 cent. They also have coins that equal 1 and 2 euro or pounds just as we have a 1 dollar coin.

As an European I have to say that I am glad that we don´t have those names for coins of different value. I personally get always confused for example between american and english pennies. More than once it has happened, that the cashier is asking if I have a penny and I simply do not know what to give her.. Well, I could put some effort on it and learn the names. You can call me lazy if you wish..<BR>In addition, now that we have the Euro in many countries, it would have been disaterous if every nation would have had it´s own nicknames for different coins.

For some reason the French are very funny about coins. They will always ask you if you have the correct change so they do not have to give you coins back. What is the deal with this? We tried to get coins for the tollway in a grocery store and in a bank and neither wanted to give up any coins. The back totally refused (in Italy) and the grocery store would only give a few.

Hee hee, heard an older French gentleman refer to the new "cent" as "centime", with the same tone of disgust...apparently, that 1 cent coin is as popular as the US penny.<BR><BR>Just a heads up: In France, prices are often quoted in francs and euros. Be sure if you use a credit card that the correct number is written or charged (price is 10 euros or 65.993 francs - if the clerk writes "65.993" on the sales slip, you'll be charged that # of euros - the franc doesn't exist in the real world). I don't think it's done intentionally (for the most part), so be nice if it happens.<BR><BR>

Ok, I got it know. Sorry I was a little slow there. So they have what we call the "silver dollar" or the new "gold" dollar coin. I did not realize that. Thanks again!