What is the conversion lire to Euro?
 

I know that the Lire is out of circulation but I am looking at some websites with lire as reference price, ie the cost for a meal for two is listed as 65.000 lire. Understanding that the coversion to the dollar has collapsed since 2000 what was the most recent conversion lire to euro or dollar? Do I even need to know?

I don't know that you really need to know this, because it is such speculation since the lira does not exist. But, at the time it was discontinued, 65,000 lire was equal to about $32.50 U.S. dollars.

The lire was set at the time of Euro taking over at 1936.27 lira to the euro. Today, the rate would be 1553.36 lira to the US dollar. In other words, divide that 65,000 lira by those figures to find that it would be equal to 33.57 euro or $ 41.84 US. Of course, you also need to take into account that since the introduction of the euro, most prices went up anyway, so the meal will probably be more than that today.

http://www.xe.net/ucc/ is a currency converter and I believe they still do the lira conversons even though they are no longer used.

You can use the historical converter at http://www.oanda.com . I would convert lire to Euros - that's more meaningful than lire to dollars. Also round up a significant amount.

Drop the last three digits of the lire figure and divide by 2. That's a reasonable approximation of euro to lire. Example: 230,000 lire = €115.

As to whether you need to know, it's fairly useful for the moment as an index of how prices have advanced since 2001, when the lire was last in use. The euro:lire conversion rate can be considered fixed, unlike other conversion rates.

Hi tina,

There are 2000 lire to a euro.

Why would you say something like that, ira, when Patrick has already given the correct answer?

<<The lire was set at the time of Euro taking over at 1936.27 lira to the euro.>>

Forever and for all time.

If 2000 is the same as 1936 all of a sudden, how about you send me 2000 shares of BRKa, and I'll send you back 1936 in return!

Innumeracy... the bane of (too many) Americans and their (often woeful) math education!

:)

Don't waste your time with all these ridiculous calculations. The answer to your question is, YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW.

By now, almost every restaurant in Italy has rewritten their menus and the prices are in Euro. Also, many restaurants used this transition as an opportunity to raise their prices (everyone got on this bandwagon and the reasons are too long to list here). So, there's little-to-no comparison to former Lire price lists. Frankly, I don't know one restaurant that created a new menu based on conversion rates. Everything was much less expensive in Italy with the Lire. That isn't so anymore.

Btw, some restaurants kept Lire prices on their new menus to "suggest" a fair conversion to an unknowing spectator. But, what they won't tell you is the Lire prices are not what they were on the former Lire-only menu. Only a regular patron of many years would know what the former Lire prices were. Regular "locals" still get their own prices in many places so, to them, none of this matters.

What is all this stuff about "you don't need to know"?

I think tinarose is not as accomplished a traveler as some of us. She merely saw a restaurant that says a meal for two is 65,000 lire. What is wrong with her wanting to know if that's more like $25 or $250??? Lighten up people, will you. I don't think she's concerned with exact cost, but I certainly see nothing wrong with a person trying to figure out if a place cost a fortune or a pittance??? All she was asking was how to make such a general estimate.

Most guide books categorize restaurants as "Inexpensive," "Moderate," "High Moderate" and "Expensive." If you need to know more exacting information than that, a smart traveler (accomplished or not) should reference a more up-to-date publication or website.

Well said Patrick

And, while we're at it, which is the more numerate answer to the question: 1936.27 or 2000?

In these circumstances, 2000 of course. For understanding how pricey a restaurant is, it doesn't matter whether a "typical" meal would have cost $33.56 a few years ago or $35. But one answer requires a calculating machine, the other one doesn't. Only a forex dealer needs to know the 1936.27 figure: 2000 is a useful number for all of us to have in our heads while travelling round Italy.

Pedantry that masks real understanding is part of the reason so many people are frightened of numbers - and why innumeracy is so common throughout the world.

Hi rex,

I'm not comfortable with calculations inolving six significant figures when the data are only 2 precise to two significant figures.

It gives a false sense of precision.

Check out xe.com. It does just about any conversion for you using current rates.

Pedantic I am, indeed. My question had more to do with why supply a "dummied-down" answer - - with no explanation that this is a crutch, as if it were the AUTHENTIC answer - - when the real answer was already given?

Clearly it is(was) a useful crutch - - especially when for a time, it gave a slightly rosy "quick-calc" for lire-to-dollar mental math.

Note that I did not carry the six figures forward as significant. With the cost of currency exchange, even the third and fourth figures are quickly "sacrificed" in any real world transaction (except for an actual bank transaction, and maybe likewise a credit card bill - in fact, this would be interesting, if you owed 100 euro to your bank, on a loan, for example, and you carried in 194,000 lire - - wouldn't they HAVE to convert it to 100.01 euro, and give you the "one cent" change?)

But if the lira:euro exchange rate is only significant to two figures for most real-world purposes, then 1900 is the better approximation, not 2000.

Eggheaded to the end, without apologies - - at times - - I confess that this is WAYYY OFF point from the question originally asked by tinarose.