World Currency Names and Background of Name

World Currency Names: why is a franc called a franc?

Have you ever wonder why different kinds of money are called what they are? Why
is peso called a peso and mark called a mark, for example? Well, the following list
will let you find out a little bittle about what names of some world money mean.

ARIARY (Madagascar) - is a name for a silver dollar.

AUKSINAS (Lithuania) - means "golden" or "gulden". Auksinas derives from
lithuanian "Auksas" which means "gold". Currently "Litas" is used in Lithuania
which has no particular or direct meaning or translation other than similarity with
the name of the country "Lietuva" (Lithuania; Litauen; Lituanie; Lituania).

COLON (Costa Rica, El Salvador) - derives from last name of Christopher Columbus -
Cristobal Colon.

DRACHMA (Greece) - means "handful".

ESCUDO (Portugal) - means "shield", referring to the coat of arms on the original
coin.

FORINT (Hungary) - comes from the city of Florence, where golden coins were minted
from 1252 called fiorino d'oro. In Hungary, florentinus (later forint), also a gold-based
currency, was used from 1325 under Charles Robert.

FRANC (Frank, Frang) (France, Switzerland, Luxembourg) - first issued in
1360, as a gold coin. Gets its name from its original Latin inscription - Francorum
Rex, which means "King of the Franks", - the title given to kings of France in the
1300s.

GUILDER (Gulden, Florin) (Netherlands) - from the same root as "gilded", the
guilder was originally a gold coin. It was first introduced from Florence in the
13th century. Florin - another nickname for Guilder means "flowers".

KORUNA (Czechia, Slovakia) - means "crown".

KRONA (Kroner, Kronor) (Iceland, Sweden, Norway etc.) - means "crown".

KUNA (Croatia) - means "marten". Marten skins were used as money.

LIRA (Lire) (Italy, Turkey) - from the Latin word libra, which means "pound".

MALOTI (Kingdom of Lesotho) - Maloti is plural for Loti, currency of Lesotho,
a kingdom in Southern Africa.

PESETA (Spain) - means "little peso", and was created in the 18th century as a
"companion" coin to the Spanish peso.

PESO (Mexico) - means "weight". It was introduced by Spain in 1497, then
adopted by Mexico and other Latin American countries in the late 19th century.

POUND (English) - named for its weight in Sterlings, - the unit of currency in
Medieval England. The first pound coin was issued in 1642.

PULA (Botswana) - Pula means ‘rain’ in Setswana, but "pula pula" does not
mean a lot of rain. It means luck, prosperity, health.

RIYAL (Saudi Arabia) - borrows its name from the Spanish real, meaning "royal".

ROUBLE (Russia, Belarus etc.) - means "cut-off", a term that dates back to the
days when portions of silver bars were literally cut-off from the bars and used as
coins. The rouble was first issued as a silver piece in 1704.

RUPEE (Rupiah) (India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius etc.) - comes from the
Sanskrit rupa, which means "beauty" or "shape". Another version of the story behind
the name rupee is that it derives it's meaning from Sanskrit words rupyakam, where
raupya means "silver" and rupyakam means "coin made of silver".

TAKA (Bangladesh) - the word "taka" is derived from the Sanskrit "tanka" which was
an ancient denomination of silver coin. Taka currency name was also used in North India.

TENGE (Kazakhstan) - means "a set of scales".

YEN (Japan) - borrowed from the Chinese yuan, which means "round", and
describes the coin. First issued in 1870.

YUAN (China) - means "round" and describes the coin.

ZLOTY (Poland) - means "golden".
World Currency Names and Countries of Their Origin

The following alphabetical list of current and historical world currency names and countries
of their origin is useful to identify both banknotes and coins.ADOPENGÖ: Hungary
AFGHANI: Afghanistan
ARIARY: Madagascar
AUKSINAS (AUKSINU, AUKSINAI): Lithuania
AUSTRAL (AUSTRALES): Argentina
BAHT: Thailand
BAISA: Oman
BALBOA: Panama
BIPKWELE: Equatorial Guinea
BIRR: Ethiopia
BOLIVAR (BOLIVARES): Venezuela
BOLIVIANO: Bolivia
CEDI (CEDIS): Ghana
CENTAVO: Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Philippines
CENT: United States of America, Sierra Leone, China, South Africa etc.
CENTAS (CENTU, CENTAI): Lithuania
CENTAVO: Many Central and South American countries, Cape Verde, Philippines etc.
CENTESIMO: Italy, Uruguay
CENTIME: Saar, France
CENTIMO: Costa Rica
CHIAO (JIAO): China
COLON (COLONES): Costa Rica, El Salvador
CORDOBA: Nicaragua
CRUZADO: Brazil
CRUZEIRO: Brazil
DALASI: Gambia
DENAR (DENARI): Macedonia
DINAR (DINARA): Algeria, Bahrain, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Yugoslavia
DIRHAM: Morocco, United Arab Emirates
DOBRA (DOBRAS): St. Thomas & Prince
DOLLAR: Antarctica, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, E.Caribbean States, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Liberia, Malaya & British Borneo, Namibia, New Zealand, Rhodesia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, Tuvalu, USA, Virgin Islands, Zimbabwe
DONG: Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, South Vietnam
DRACHMA (DRACHMAI): Greece
DRAM: Armenia
DUCAT: Moldova
EKUELE: Equatorial Guinea
EMALANGENI: Swaziland
ESCUDO: Chile, Mozambique, Portugal
EURO: Selected European Union countries
FEN: China
FLORIN: Aruba, Netherlands
FORINT: Hungary
FRANC: Algeria, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial African States, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Guadeloupe, Guinea, Katanga, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Monaco, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Saar, Senegal, Switzerland, Tahiti, Togo, Tunisia, West African States
GOURDE: Haiti
GUARANI: Paraguay
GUILDER: Netherlands, Netherlands Indies, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname
GULDEN: Netherlands, Netherlands Indies, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname
HELLER: Austria
HRYVNIA (HRYVNI, HRYVEN, GRIVNA): Ukraine
INTI (INTIS): Peru
JEON: South Korea
JIAO (CHIAO): China
KAK: Cambodia/Kampuchea
KARBOVANETS (KARBOVANTSIV): Ukraine
KINA: Papua New Guinea
KIP: Laos
KOBO: Nigeria
KONVERTIBILNA MARKA (KONVERTIBILNIH MARAKA): Bosnia & Herzegovina
KONVERTIBILNA PFENIGA: Bosnia & Herzegovina
KORUNA (KORUN, KORUNY): Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Slovakia
KRONA (KRONOR): Sweden
KRONE (KRONEN): Austria, Bohemia, Romania
KRONE (KRONER): Denmark, Norway
KRONUR (KRONA): Iceland
KROON (KROONI): Estonia
KUNA (KUNE): Croatia
KUPON: Ukraine
KUPONI: Georgia
KWACHA: Malawi, Zambia
KWANZA: Angola
KYAT: Burma/Myanmar
LARI: Georgia
LATS (LATI, LATU): Latvia
LEU (LEI): Moldova, Romania
LEK (LEKË): Albania
LEMPIRA: Honduras
LEONE: Sierra Leone
LEV (LEVA): Bulgaria
LIKUTA: Zaire
LILANGENI: Swaziland
LIRA (TÜRK LIRASI): Turkey
LIRA (LIROT): Israel
LIRA (LIRE): Italy
LIRA (LIRI): Malta
LITAS (LITAI, LITU): Lithuania
LIVRE: Lebanon
LOTI: Lesotho
MAKUTA: Zaire
MALOTI: Lesotho
MANAT: Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan
MARK: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Germany, Saar, Memel
MARKKA: Finland
METICAI (METICAIS): Mozambique
MILPENGÖ: Hungary
MIL (MILS): Cyprus
NAIRA: Nigeria
NAKFA: Eritrea
NEW PENCE: United Kingdom (military issues)
NEW SHEKEL (SHEQEL, SHEQALIM, SHEKALIM): Israel
NGULTRUM: Bhutan
NGWEE: Zambia
NOUVEAUX MAKUTA: Zaire
OUGUIYA: Mauritania
PA'ANGA: Tonga
PATACA: Macao
PENCE: Falkland Islands, St. Helena, United Kingdom
PENGÖ: Hungary
PESETA: Spain
PESO: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Cuba, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Mexico, Philippines, Uruguay
PESO BOLIVIANO: Bolivia
PESO ORO: Colombia, Dominican Republic
PFENNIG: Germany
PIASTRE: Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, Egypt, Sudan
PISO: Philippines
POUND: Biafra, Cyprus, Egypt, England, Falkland Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Palestine, Rhodesia, South Africa, St. Helena, South Africa, Syria, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey
PULA: Botswana
PUNT: Republic of Ireland
QUETZAL (QUETZALES): Guatemala
RAND: South Africa
REAL (REAIS): Brazil
REALES BOLIVIANOS: Argentina
REICHSMARK: Germany
RENTENMARK: Germany
RIAL: Iran, Oman, Yemen
RIEL: Cambodia (Kampuchea)
RINGGIT: Malaysia
RIYAL: Saudi Arabia, Qatar
RUBLE (ROUBLE, RUBLEI): Russia, Tajikistan, Tatarstan, Transnistria
RUBEL (RUBL'OU): Belarus
RUBLIS (RUBLI, RUBLU): Latvia
RUFIYAA: Maldives
RUPEE: Ceylon, India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Zanzibar
RUPIAH: Indonesia
RUPIE (RUPIEN): German East Africa
SANTIMS: Latvia
SCELLINI: Somalia
SCHILLING: Austria
SENTI: Estonia
SHEQALIM (SHEKALIM): Israel
SHEQEL (SHEKEL): Israel
SHILIN: Somalia
SHILINGI: TanzaniaSHILLING: Biafra, Kenya, Somaliland, Tanzania, Uganda, England, Isle of Man
SKATIKAS (SKATIKU, SKATIKAI): Lithuania
SOLES DE ORO: Peru
SOM (COM): Kyrgyzstan,
SOM (SUM, CYM): Uzbekistan
SOMONI: Tajikistan
STOTINKA (STOTINKI): Bulgaria
SUCRE (SUCRES): Ecuador
SYLI (SYLIS): Guinea
TAKA: Bangladesh
TALA: Samoa
TALER (TALERJEV): Slovenia
TALONAS (TALONAI, TALONU): Lithuania
TAMBALA: Malawi
TENGE: Kazakhstan
THALER: Bohemia, Germany, Hungary, Roman Empire, Prussia etc.
TOLAR (TOLARJEV): Slovenia
TUGRIK: Mongolia
VATU: Vanuatu
TYIYN (TIYIN, TbIUbIH): Kyrgyzstan
WON: North Korea, South Korea
XU: Vietnam, South Vietnam
YEN: Japan
YUAN: China
ZAIRE: Zaire
ZLOTY (ZLOTE, ZLOTYCH, ZLOTÓWKA): Poland