Currency

I thought a lot about currency on my trip.  In almost every country, I got new money from the ATM at the airport.  It took a lot of focus to shift the conversion rate in my head every few days.  Below are the different kinds of currency that I had in my purse by the end of the trip.

1. US dollars
2. British pounds
3. Euros
4. Swedish kroner
5. Singapore dollars
6. Australian dollars
7. Hong Kong dollars
8. Thai baht

Since it was a bit of a pain to exchange money back and fourth, I kept any change I had from each place.  I spent part of Sunday sorting out the money and counting how much I have from each country.  Not counting the US dollars, I had over $300 in "change."  Change included both bills and coins from each place.

The places that I had the most money from were Singapore and Thailand, so I may try to exchange that money this week with foreign friends while they're in town.  I'm not sure if the currency exchange places in Memphis are looking for so many random kinds of money.

I will also keep some as a souvenir.  I'm pretty against buying souvenirs, but different coins are pretty interesting.

Below is a photo of the money all sorted out.  The coins are sitting in stacks by type.  Pretty cool, right?