Collect These Currencies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Colon

"Don't end your sentence with a semiCOLON."
The colón is the currency in Costa Rica. It replaced, in 1896, the former Costa Rican peso. The colón is officially divided into centimos, but the practical value of a centime is almost nil. The colón comes in coins denominating 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 colones, whereas the banknotes range from 1,000 colones up till 50,000 colones.

Answer: Euro

"Brussels is the capital of EUROpe."
The euro was launched in 1999, but the banknotes and coins were only available in 2002. The euro replaced the previous currencies in twelve European countries, including France, Germany and Italy. Later on several other countries from the European Union have abandoned their old currency to adopt the euro.

The euro is divided in 100 cents. Coins include 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent, as well as 1 and 2 euro. The banknotes go from 5 to 500 euro. Some countries have discontinued the 1 and 2 cent coins.

Answer: Franc

"FRANCois Villon was a French poet."
The franc is the Swiss currency. A number of former French colonies in Africa also use the franc as their currency: the West African CFA franc in, for instance, Benin and Cote d'Ivoire, the Central African CFA franc in, for instance, Cameroon or Gabon. Furthermore, Djibouti, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo use their own version of the franc.

The Swiss franc, the best known of all francs in use when this quiz was published, is divided into 100 rappen in German usage. The French-speaking Swiss use the word centimes and the Italian-speaking Swiss use the word centesimos. Coins represent 5 rappen up till 5 francs, and the banknotes range from 10 Swiss francs to 1,000 francs.

If you wonder about François Villon: he lived from 1431 until 1464, and is best known for his "Grand Testament". His most famous verse is "Mais où sont passes les neiges d'antan?" ("Where have gone the snows of yesteryear?").

Answer: Kip

"Rudyard KIPling wrote "The Jungle Book"."

The kip is the local currency in Laos. Various governments had different kips circulating: the Royal kip (from 1952 until 1979), the Pathet Lao kip (mostly from 1976 until 1979), and finally the Lao PDR kip (from 1979). Coins have been discontinued, and the banknotes frequently circulating vary from 500 up to 100,000 kip.

Theoretically the kip is divided into 100 att, but as such the att is discontinued.

Answer: Leone

"PLEONExia is an unusual synonym for greed."
Leone is the currency in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leonean leone was introduced in 1964. In theory a leone is subdivided into 100 cents, but you'll soon discover why the cents are discontinued. Coins range from 10 leone to 500 leone and are rarely used. Banknotes range from 1,000 to 10,000 leones, and larger banknotes have been suggested.

Answer: Quetzal

"The Aztec supreme deity was QUETZALcoatl - the feathered serpent."
The quetzal is a local bird in Mexico and Central America, and Guatemala named its new currency in 1925 after this colourful bird.
The Guatemalan quetzal is divided into 100 centavos. Coins range from 1 centavo to 1 quetzal, and banknotes range from 1 quetzal to 200 quetzales, with the local government planning to issue 500 quetzales and 1,000 quetzales banknotes.

Answer: Rand

"Let's make a bRAND new start."
The rand is the South-African currency. It was introduced in 1961.
The rand is divided into 100 cents. Coins range from 10 cents to 5 rand, and banknotes go from 10 rand to 200 rand.
Remarkably, the text on the banknotes issued in 2012 is in two different languages per note (plus English), so that the five banknotes together have texts in all eleven national languages. For instance, the 10 rand note has Afrikaans and Swati, the 50 rand note has Venda and Xhosa, and the 200 rand note has Sotho and Zulu.

Answer: Real

"Do you REALly want to rate this quiz poorly?"
The real is the Brazilian currency. It was introduced in 1994, as a replacement of the cruzeiro real.
The name "real" does not refer to the sixteenth-century Spanish coins named "real", but to the artificial money "unidade real de valor", which was equalled with the US dollar. At the introduction one Brazilian real was exactly worth one American dollar.
One Brazilian real is divided into 100 centavos. Coins go from 1 centavo to 1 real, and the banknotes go from 1 real (outdated) up to 100 reais.

Answer: Sol

"Philip SOLd me a trinket."
At first I wanted to use the sentence "Philippe sold me a trinket" to lead to the Mexican or Argentine peso, but then I realised that the sol is also a currency - the Peruvian one.
So no more pesos from Mexico or Argentina, but let's discuss the Peruvian sol.

Peru introduced the sol in 1863. In 1985, it replaced the sol by the inti, and it reversed to the Nuevo sol in 1991 (at a rate of one Nuevo sol for one million inti). The Nuevo sol is commonly called sol, so we'll use this short form too.
The Peruvian sol is divided into 100 céntimos, and coins range from 5 céntimos to 5 soles. Banknotes go from 10 soles to 200 soles.

Answer: Won

"Some people can't get WONt to rising early."
The som (from "SOMe people") is the Kyrgyz or the Uzbek currency.
The won is the Korean currency. Despite the many political and military differences between North- and South-Korea, they use the same name for their currencies.
Korea (when it still was one single country) adopted the won in 1902, in replacement of the yang. In 1910 Korea adopted the yen up till 1945.
South-Korea reverted to the won in 1945 for a few years. From 1953 to 1962 it used the hwan, and reverted once again to the won in 1962.
North-Korea adopted the won once more in 1947.
The North-Korean won is divided in 100 chon. Coins range from 1 chon to 1 won, and banknotes from 5 to 5,000 won.
The South-Korean won is theoretically divided into 100 jeon. But as the coins range from 1 won up to 500 won, the jeon is not used. South-Korean banknotes go from 1,000 won up to 50,000 won.