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Word Source: World Currency 1 : Europe

Almost every country in the world has its own currency, both a small unit (penny) and large unit (dollar), so with close to 200 nations and a whole history, there are tons of words here to add to a vocabulary.  Most people have likely heard of the most common units, like Japanese YEN, Mexican PESO, British POUND, and the EURO which replaced most European currencies around the year 2000.  Here are some others to look for in your word challenges.  The exact conversions and even the spellings vary across the decades.  All of these are in the Scrabble dictionary unless marked with a (-) and all have a plural which adds an "s" unless the plural is specifically given.

Here are the currencies used in Europe in the last century or so.

AUKSINAS- (Lithuania)
BAN plural BANI (Romania)
CENTAS or CENTAI or CENTU (Lithuania)
CENTESIMO plural CENTESIMI (Italy)
CENTIMOS (Spain & others)
DRACHMA plural DRACHMAE or DRACHMAS (Greece, 100 lepta)
DRAM (Armenia, 100 LUMA)
ESCUDO (Portugal, 100 centavos or 1000 reis)
EYRIR plural AURAR (Iceland)
FARTHING (U.K., 1/4 of a penny)
FILLER (Hungary)
FLORIN (Austrian Empire)
FORINT (Hungary, 100 fillér)
FRANC (Switzerland & France, 100 centimes)
GROSCHEN (Austria, Germany)
GROSZ plural GROSZY (Poland, see zloty)
GUILDER or GULDEN (Netherlands, 100 cents)
GULDEN (Germany, historical, 60 kreuzer)
HALER or HELLER (Czech Republic)
HALIER (Slovakia)
HRYVNA, HRYVNIA or HRYVNYA (Ukraine, 100 kopiyok)
KOPIYKA plural KOPIYOK (Ukraine)
KORUN plural KORUNY (Czech Rep, 100 halers; Slovakia, 100 halier)
KRONA plural KRONOR (Sweden, Faroe Islands, 100 öre)
KRONA (Iceland, 100 aurar)
KRONE plural KRONER (Denmark, Norway, 100 öre)
KROON (Estonia, 100 cents)
KUNA plural KUNA or KUNE (Croatia, 100 lipa)
LARI (Georgia, 100 tetri)
LATS plural LATI (2-9 of them) or LATU (10 or more) (Latvia, 100 santimi)
LEK plural LEKE or LEKET (Albania, 100 qindarka)
LEPTON plural LEPTA (Greece)
LEU plural LEI (Romania, 100 bani)
LEV plural LEVA (Bulgaria, 100 stotinki)
LIPA (Croatia)
LIRA plural LIRE (Italy, 100 centesimi)
LITAS plural LITAI or LITU (Lithuania, 100 centu)
LIVRE (France, historical, 20 sous)
MANAT (Azerbaijan, 100 kapik)
MARAVEDI (Spain, historical)
MARK (Germany, 100 pfennig)
MARKKA or FINMARK (Finland, 100 pennia)
OBOL (Greece, ancient, 1/6 of a drachma)
PENGO (Hungary 1927-46, 100 fillér, known for its extreme inflation)
PENNI plural PENNIA (Finland)
PESETA (Spain, 100 centimos)
PFENNIG plural PFENNIGE or PFENNIGS (Germany)
QAPIK- (Azerbaijan)
QINDARKE plural QINDARKA (Albania)
RAPPEN (Switzerland)
REAL plural REIS (Portugal)
REAL plural REALES (Spain)
SANTIMS- plural SANTIMI- (Latvia)
SCHILLING (Austria, 100 groschen)
SHILLING (U.K.)
SOUS (France, historical, 12 deniers)
STOTIN plural STOTINS or STOTINAR- (Slovenia)
STOTINKA plural STOTINKI (Bulgaria)
TETRI plural TETRI (Georgia)
TOLAR (Slovenia)
ZLOTY (Poland, 100 groszy)

This is not meant as a text book on banking history.  I may have missed a few, and will add more as I find them.  Feel free to google if you are naturally curious.  As a lifelong stamp collector with smaller hoards o coins and paper money, I have been seeing these words since I was a kid, but they may be new to non-collectors.


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