Remember:  This advice is worth what you paid for it!

Plan - Passports - Wallets - Safety - Luggage - The.Flight - Heavy.Metal - Getting.Around - Restaurants - Must.See

• Not surprizingly, there 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 pence coins... plus one Pound and two Pound and soon to be five Pound coins.  The bigger they are, the heavier they are.  And, it does not take a lot of them to be a spot of bother ['nuisance'.]

• There is nothing like a cache of British coins to tear a hole in your pocket!  Use a small coin purse.

• Coins cannot be exchanged back home here in the colonies for U.S. currency (...the same for Scottish one Pound notes!)  All the coins that you bring back are souvenirs.  Some airports in Britain have charity drop boxes near the boarding areas for extra coins.

• More on British Coins, pictures of present and past British bank notes and The Bank of England's information on banknotes and counterfeiting.

• Before you leave, be sure to check with the companies that issued your various major credit cards.  You will want to know the exchange rate (and surcharges, if any) at which they convert purchases in British Pound Sterling to your home currency for billing.  We found that one credit card company would have charged us far more than the others!  Know before you go  ...to avoid a nasty surprise when you get your monthly statement.

•   There is a veritable treasure trove of information on exchange rates at XE.com.  Check out their handy XE.com Personal Currency Assistant™

Europhiles Delight

• The new euro currency will go into public circulation on Tuesday, 1st January 2002.

• The euro ( € ) will be a single, common currency in twelve of the fifteen European Union (EU) countries:  Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

• The three EU nations that will not be adopting the euro are Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom.

• Tourists including destinations in mainland Europe on their holiday will want to familiarize themselves with the euro coins and notes.    

Copyright © 1999 - 2005  J. C. Nash. All worldwide rights reserved.
Last modified: Thursday, 27 October 2005.

The copyrighted 'spinning currency logo' used with the kind permission of XE.com.