Currencly...

Statistics among us would say that there's a high correlation between moving and sorting things beforehand. Being the rational person that I am, I would even go as far as proclaiming this to be a causal relationship (after empirical testing of that correlation and despite my dear stat prof's warnings that "correlations may, but need not describe causal relations"). And since my move to Salzburg is ever drawing closer, I am currently in the middle of yet another sorting adventure. The things you discover... ;-)

About an hour ago I stumbled across this little case that I had sitting in one of my shelves. I remembered that it contained a myriad of bills and coins from different currencies - several of which I could've put to good use this year if I had just remembered the contents of this darn box back then. Well, I hate to admit it, but I may have indeed inherited some of my father's book-keeping genes. So I set off to count and get an idea of the (pre-)historic riches stored in my shelves. And it all boils down to this (currencies named in the language of their origin):
USA: 16 Dollar bills plus 2.80 USD in postage stamps (outdated ones?) and coins worth 6 USD and 70 cents
Switzerland: a handful of coins, worth 4 Franken and 55 Rappen
Denmark: 50 Denmark Kroner and coins worth 6 DKR
Indonesia: 3000 Rupiahs (hell, I never even travelled there - where did I get the money from???)
Romania: 2100 Lei - funnily, the 100 Lei-coin is from 1991, the two 1000 Lei-coins from 2001 AND the latter ones are smaller and lighter. Inflation, anyone?
India: 21 Rupees
GDR, the country I was born in: 21 Pfennig
FDR, the country I grew up in: 73 Pfennig
China: 1 Yuan as a bill as well as coins worth 6 Yuan and 31 Mao
Hungary: 200 Forint as a bill plus coins worth 438 Forint and 140 Filler (I don't even know whether Filler are still in use, they're from long, long, long ago when I was shorther than the equivalent of this amount in cm)
ČSR (yeah, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, some of these hold historic value, as I told you ): 6 Korunas and 40 Hellers
Korea (guessing from the looks of the coin): 100 something - again, I'm going out on a limb here since I never, ever went to Korea, either. My, I should seriously try to remember how that money found its way to me...
Chile: 5 Pesos - for once, I seem to have been able to really spend my vacation money and not bring back a load of it. I think.
Finnland: 20 Penniä - third time that I need to question myself how the heck I got this money? Again, never been there. It's starting to get weird.
Netherlands: 25 Cents
Poland: 2 Złoty
Canada: 1 Canadian Dollar and 30 cents
GB: 2 £, 32 Pence and 1 Shilling (excuse me, but I can't remember how much pence the latter equals)
CCCP (aka the Soviet Republic, you know, back when, uh, you know what I mean): 40 Kopeks
From the land of the smiling clown: a fancy, plasticy purple coin, imprinted with "China" (and no, not as in "Made in China")
and last, but not least: a strange coin from the land of sincityvideo (don't ask!). Currency? Virgo. I kid you not. Needless to say, I have not the slightest hunch how THIS could've gotten here. Honestly. Coming to think of it, I'm not too sure whether this is convincing at all. Oh well, I'd better leave it at that.

I'll now get back to counting the cents in my real purse... maybe it's enough for an anti-shock coffee tomorrow morning. Talk to you later.

Hanna