Last week, Webb’s Weird Words attempted an April Fools’ column consisting entirely of made-up words.
No idea how many readers fell for that — but my spurious list included one whimsical monetary unit: the fictitious praq, supposedly used in the fake former Soviet republic, “Ziurtzybad.”
Now if you swallowed that one, don’t feel bad; “praq” is not much weirder than some of the coinage and paper-money used around the world.
So in honor of next week’s Tax Day, here’s a collection of terms from global currency.
I’ll begin by explaining that “currency” can refer to both coins and paper, coming as it does from the common Latin base cur(s); this means “to run or flow” — in the case of cash, flowing between people specifically. The base has given us dozens of words like car, occur, course, corridor, charge, cursor and even, perhaps, carpenter.
Speaking of coins: Our smallest unit is technically not called a “penny” but a “cent.” Derived from the Latin for “hundred,” the cent is used in more than 40 of the world’s 195 countries. Under President Trump’s current plan (pun intended), America may follow Canada’s lead by eliminating its one-cent piece altogether.
(The issue: It costs more than a cent to make one; so in 2024, the U.S. Mint lost $85 million manufacturing pennies. According to NPR, along with Trump, “Democrats have tried and failed for decades to get rid of America’s one-cent coin” — though this move would likely cause untold headaches when it first takes effect.)
Most world currency falls into larger units like the dollar (found in roughly 30 countries), which are in turn split into smaller parts, usually amounting to 100.
For example, in Poland, 100 groszy equals one zloty — while in Tonga, 100 seniti adds up to a single pa’anga; and in Mongolia, a tugrik comprises 100 mongo. (To save time and space in this very “listy” column, I won’t provide pronunciation; that can be found at most good dictionary websites — if you’re brave enough!)
A few other global divisions:
Albania: one lek = 100 qindarka. Angola: one kwanza = 100 lwei. Botswana: one pula = 100 thebe. Bulgaria: one lev = 100 stotinki. Finland: one markka = 100 pennis (careful with that extra “N”!). Gambia: one dalasi = 100 bututs. Kyrgyzstan: one som = 100 tyiyn. (Uzbekistan uses the similar tyyn.)
In Laos: one kip = 100 at. Latvia: one lats = 100 santimi. Malawi: one kwacha = 100 tambala. Maldives: one rufiyaa = 100 laari. Mauritania: one ouguiya = five khoums. Myanmar: one kyat = 100 pyas. Nigeria: one naira = 100 kobo. Thailand: one baht = 100 satang. Ukraine: one hryvnia = 100 kopiykas. Vietnam: one dong = 10 hao. (In a family publication, I’m not touching that last one!)
Other larger units: birr (Ethiopia); gourde (Haiti); guarani (Paraguay); krona (Iceland; subdivision–eyrir); kroon (Estonia); lilangeni (Swaziland); loti (Lesotho); nakfa (Eritrea); ngultrum (Bhutan); quetzal (Guatemala; it shares the name of that country’s most famous bird — and one of the world’s loveliest); ringgit (Malaysia).
Some smaller divisions: Armenia’s luma; Austria’s groschen; China’s jiao; Egypt and Jordan’s piaster (had to include this, as it’s used in the lyrics for Steely Dan’s “Dr. Wu,” from the album Katy Lied — currently enjoying its 50th anniversary); Georgia’s tetri; Ghana’s pesewa; Papua New Guinea’s toea; Saudi Arabia’s halala; and Tunisia’s millime.
And finally: The little-known Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific, has only the vatu, which is thus both its largest and smallest unit — no subdivisions.
This column owes a huge debt to a sprawling “currency table” in the peerless fourth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary — an eight-pound beauty I picked up at the most recent James V. Brown used-book sale. Their next such bonanza is coming up on April 24-26.
But … get those taxes done first!
