# Pardon me, but is this Pit material? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 3, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709 "2003-08-03T12:37:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/21 "2003-08-04T13:25:04Z")
damn you **Noclue** , you stole my commute joke. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/22 "2003-08-04T20:42:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \* > \*\*Well, hell, if real life experience counted let me point out that I have been to: > > Mexico > Canada > Israel > Egypt > Jordan > > all without having more local currency than the government _required_ me to exchange upon entrance to the country. \*\* Youā€™re required to exchange money on entrance? If you had already had the required amount, would you still have had to get more? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/23 "2003-08-05T00:12:04Z")
You got it. Thatā€™s how some of our poorer neighbors guarantee an influx of hard currency. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/24 "2003-08-05T00:45:48Z")
Iā€™m just amazed that anything could be considered ā€œnot good enoughā€ for the Pit. Itā€™s a _pit_, ferchrissakes. Most stuff in here is crap. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/25 "2003-08-05T03:10:07Z")
Arenā€™t there people who commute every day from one country to another? Do they have to go through this every day? When I went to Mexico, I never had to change my money (both in the sense of them letting me in without doing so, and in the sense of there not being very many people in there who wouldnā€™t take dollars). ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/26 "2003-08-05T12:19:17Z")
OK, the word ā€˜neighborsā€™ was ill-chosen (except in a ā€˜global villageā€™ sense). I was really referring to Egypt and Jordan there. Though Iā€™ve been told the practice extends to many african and latin american countries. I can imagine Mexico doing that. Too many crossings per day. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2003, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/27 "2003-08-05T13:21:12Z")
Itā€™s all very well saying ā€œI never had to get the local funny money - the locals were happy to accept the mighty greenbackā€ but I can guarantee you that if you paid in US$ in those places then you were getting royally ripped off. Sure, people will take US$, but only if itā€™s in their interest to do so, because theyā€™re charging you over the odds. ---
**Author:** ![quasar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@quasar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quasar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/28 "2003-08-12T04:15:53Z")
**Qadgop** mentioned: > [@](#): > > However, it seems that when Panama has produced coins in the past, theyā€™ve often been minted for the Panamanian government by mints in the US and Canada. ĀæDo balboas and US coins have not only the same size, weight, composition and denominations as US coins, but do they come with the same **design** as well? I assume thatā€™s what is meant by saying the minting is often carried out by the US, nā€™est-ce pas? Otherwise, why wonā€™t the Panamanians do the minting themselves? ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/29 "2003-08-12T11:21:43Z")
**Jonathan Chance** , I havenā€™t been to Egypt or Israel, but Iā€™ve been to about 20 different countries (mostly Latin America and Europe) and Iā€™ve never heard of such a requirement. I must be missing something, because Iā€™m having a hard time imagining how this in enforced. Are you supposed to obtain the local currency before entering the country? That can be very difficult to impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/30 "2003-08-12T11:34:56Z")
**quasar** : Countries outsource minting and printing when it would be cheaper for them to let another country do it for them, instead of setting up an expensive operation on their own shores. It has nothing to do with the qualities of the currency in the place where the stuff will be made. For example, Omanā€™s paper money is printed in the UK, and Iā€™m willing to bet that British quid doesnā€™t have much Arabic on it. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/31 "2003-08-12T12:03:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chula \* > \*\ ***Jonathan Chance** , I havenā€™t been to Egypt or Israel, but Iā€™ve been to about 20 different countries (mostly Latin America and Europe) and Iā€™ve never heard of such a requirement. I must be missing something, because Iā€™m having a hard time imagining how this in enforced. Are you supposed to obtain the local currency before entering the country? That can be very difficult to impossible. \*\* All three of the middle east countries I visited required it during customs. You had to convert whatever your currency was into XXX amount of the local currency. What you did after that was your own affair. Really, it just struck me as a means for the government to guarantee some direct reserves of American dollars. God alone knows if they do it for other non-hard currencies. And bear in mind this was more than 10 years ago. Such policies change with the wind. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709/32 "2003-08-12T20:44:54Z")
I believe the forced exchange Johnathan Chance referred to was prevalent in Eastern Europe before the Soviets crashed. It was a proftable way for the Soviets to get hold of hard western currencies. Westerners could rarely find enough decent products to buy with rubles, but they couldnā€™t exchange them back to their own currency on the way out. Or maybe they could, but at some ruinous rate. I canā€™t find an immediate cite for this, and Iā€™m basing it on reading innumerable cold war spy thrillers, where border crossings are discussed in great detail. I remember this issue was a recurring one in such books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pardon-me-but-is-this-pit-material/192709.md?page=1)