By jfbarszcz
My prompt this week asks me to talk about a custom from my country that I think the US should adopt. While not a "custom," per se, there is one big thing that the Czech Republic does better than the US: money. No, I don't mean the Czech Republic is richer than the United States, or that their spending habits are better, or that Czech monetary policy is better than America's. I mean that their actual money, their cash, is so much better than ours, for several reasons.
First of all, everyone who's been outside the US knows how boring-looking American dollar bills are compared to just about every foreign currency's banknotes. While the traditional green does have a certain timeless appeal to it, the monochrome gets a bit tiresome. Thankfully, the Czech Koruna (or Crown, as it's often known in English; abbreviated Kč or CZK) follows the trend of the rest of the world. Czech banknotes are quite colorful; in my wallet right now I have a green 100Kč note, an orange 200Kč note and a pink-and-brown 500Kč note. Compared to what the inside of my wallet looks like when I'm in the states, this is a veritable cornucopia. Once you know what colors correspond to which notes, it becomes much easier to pick them out. Plus, the larger denomination notes are actually physically larger! It isn't really apparent unless you lay them out next to each other, but I still think it's pretty cool. (The effect is definitely more noticeable with euro notes.)
And then there's coins. The least-valued banknote issued in the Czech Republic is 100Kč. The most-valued coin issued in the Czech Republic is 50Kč. Astute readers may remember that the exchange rate is about 20Kč to one US dollar. In other words, $1 and $2 bills have no equivalent here; you have to use coins (in denominations of 20 and 50 crowns, as well as smaller ones of 1, 2, 5 and 10). Which actually works out pretty great; I actually enjoy being able to pay for things (especially groceries and delicious, cheap, delicious beer) with just coins. I feel like I'm in the 1930's or something every time I go to the store or a bar (this is, to me, a good thing). And I actually find carrying a bunch of coins more convenient than having a giant wad of bills in my wallet (though if didn't wear pants with a watch pocket I might be singing a different tune; but those things are seriously great for carrying coins). And most of all I enjoy having coins that are actually useful. Take note, US.
One final note, speaking of useful coins: the smallest denomination issued in any form here is the 1Kč coin. That's about a nickel. And there seems to be no issue here with rounding to the nearest crown; the Czechs get along just fine without subdividing. And if they can do that without their economy collapsing, then I'm pretty sure we can too. So can we please finally get rid of the penny and start rounding everything to the nearest five cents?
Oh, and let's just go over to the metric system while we're at it.