Somehow I would think that the use of the dollar overseas would just increase the incentive for counterfeiting.
Are East Timor, Ecuador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau banks going to worry about the problem? Wouldn’t a bank owner have a great incentive to call some overseas printer (in Iran perhaps) to make him a bundle he could give to the next plantation owner on payroll day? Instantly the money is everywhere and noone cares. The local police bow to the rich and they have no FBI to investigate any questions.
Because you’ve never seen a Balboa they don’t exist?
Your first post said:
You call it a Balboa, and say it is equal to a dollar, but it doesn’t exist? Has no one in Panama ever seen one? You are apparently under the mistaken impression that currency must be made of paper.
I live in Panama, I have for over a decade. There is no other banknote in ciculation than the dollar. Full stop.
The local name for the Dollar is (for some reason) the Balboa.
Our coins have the same size content and value as the US ones. I buy Miami newspapers with them if I have some accidently in my pocket upon arriving in the US.
Really, trust me; Dollars are the only currency in my hometown.
I am glad we don’t have US currency for one reason and one reason only. The colour! Here I know a $5 is orange and a $20 is green and a $10 is blue. All your’s are green…damn I would hate to work in a dark night club there! Of course we have the new plastic fantastic money that can go through the washing machine and tumble drier and emerge wrinkle free. Oh yeah this is a good thing!
While on the currency topic, I was working in a pub in London when I was handed a note with naked Africans on it. “Sorry we don’t take foreign currency” said I. This was met with a loud and vulgar tirade about how Scottish notes were NOT foreign. Now that’s a confusing scenario, Britain has too many different notes!
The Balboa is real despite the fact it does not exist!
Look, Panama has no currency. No monetary policy, identical interest rate as the US. It has no banknotes. It uses uses US coins alongside its own supplementary coinage. It is identical to the Dollar. It is the Dollar.
Theres a difference between the unit of exchange and the unit of account. They don’t have to be the same thing.
For example, back in the colonial days in the thirteen colonies, Britsh hard currency–coins–was virtually never seen. Instead, Spanish currency, such as the Spanish dollar, was used in most everyday transactions.
However, the pound was still the official currency, so when it came time to write up the accounts, people would normally record everything as pounds, shillings, and pence.
I know zero about Panama and the Balboa, but it may very well be a similar thing: the Balboa is the official unit of account, even though it doesn’t circulate.
Perhaps, but the Balboa (also a now-exinct beer, BTW) and the Dollar are on a par.
They are the same thing.
Bojo, you cease to amuse me. I honestly do not see what point you are making and frankly assume you are trying to be offensive. That being the case I shall not visit this thread again.
If any of you is headed for Cambodia, at least for Siem Reap, the town closest to Angkor Wat (and Angkor Thom, and numerous other temples), take a bunch of small U.S. bills. Cambodia has its own official currency, the riel, but when you pay for a visa at the airport, when you buy a pass for the temples, when you pay for an exit visa, etc., those collecting the fees will want U.S. dollars. In fact, IIRC, for the visas, they won’t accept anything else (like Thai baht, which you would think would be fairly common there). The prices on the menus in restaurants are all in dollars. The souvenirs are priced in dollars.
Just to make it even more interesting, there are no ATMs in the country at all. And if you try to cash a $100 travelers check at a local bank, they may or may not have enough currency to take care of it. When you buy something, breaking a $20 bill can be a problem. So, you need a fistful of ones and fives! As a capper, credit cards are accepted only at the larger hotels.
For Cambodia, at least, the U.S. dollar may not be the official currency, but for all practical purposes it is. (This may not be true in Phnom Penh - I didn’t get there, so I can’t speak to the situation there, but I believe it’s much the same.)
What, except for for jklann (4th post) and Boyo Jim (simulpost though). Sorry, just a laugh;)
Just a point about the Scottish/English notes. they are perfectly interchangeable, and Scottish notes are certainly legal tenfer elsewhere in the UK, but I never accept them, for the simple reason that I se them so rarely, I wouldn’t know a fake from a real one. I think this is the reason some stores won’t take them either, aprticularly the higher denomination notes.
In addition, these countries which use US banknotes (I asume most cannot print their own…now that would lead to chaos), do they effectively get their currency printed for free?
I hate to disagree with a UK resident here, but I was pretty confident only Bank of England notes were legal tender throughout the UK, while notes issued by Scottish banks were only in Scotland.