It makes the world go around

I have always liked the idea of the Euro, but it did take away one of the most magical things about going on Holiday to Europe - different money, lots of different kinds of money. Whenever we were heading abroad Dad would prep us on how to convert. Obviously we only ever needed sterling to host nation, but I come from a family where we were also taught less practical things like how many Austrian Shillings to a German Mark (about 7).

When I moved to the US it took about 8 months before I stopped converting every transaction back into pounds, and even now I do it for large purchases. When we travel back to the UK the prices are so high that I generally try not to think about it until after the Visa bill.

And so we arrive at Rupees. Hmm. I get that we're about 45 to the dollar - I'm getting old, my capacity for mental arithmetic is diminishing and I am still without a phone/calcuator. At this point I am taking a tip from Roman Numerals, if I learn the equivalents for $1, $5, $10, $50, $100, $500 & $1,000 then I should be close enough on most things. The issue is that I'm not yet comfy with the Indian numbering system with Lakh and Crore, so with larger numbers I'm navigating differently placed commas. I am confident that given some focus this will all click into place, but at this point I'm just going to go with the learning by osmosis plan.

Disclaimer: I am not currently making any purchases that require me to handle Lakhs.

One thing I do like is that the 1 & 2 Rupee coins show a hand indicating the amount with number of fingers (thumb and then add forefinger for the two if you had other images...). Not sure how far this continues...