When a European Union nation like France, Germany, Italy, ect. adopt the euro as its money, does its old money like francs, marks, lira, etc. become worthless like confederate money?
218136
worthless but you may keep it for collection purpose.\nYou may get a good deal in 10-20 years, you never know.\n:)
662972
The bonds have an interesting history, but retain value only as collector items.\n\nThe bond issue was largely subscribed by Poles living in the US, and was subsequently converted at least once to bonds that became due in 1958.  Because they were largely bought in the US, this is about the only place you will find them.  Because they were converted the original issues are rare.\n\nAccording to the second source I link, they have no financial value and can no longer be redeemed in any form.\n\nBut one bond in Fine condition is listed in my third link for $120 (go down about a third of the way to "POLAND; bonds & shares").
593109
One of the first things the US government did was replace Iraq's currency. If there are Iraqi "petro dollars" floating around, they are worthless.
18348
There is no "why" to it. Each unit of currency exists independent of the others; some will have a higher value than the dollar, others will have lower value. Some may even start out higher and be lower later due to inflation.
464019
I don't think there was an official currency as Italy did not exist as a state before 1861.  The country was divided into independent states that were ruled separately by foreign nations; primarily Austria, but also Spain and France.\n\nThere were however a number of different currencies like the lira, such as the Vatican lira and the San Marinese lira.\n\nThe lira was also the currency of the Napoleonic kingdom from 1807-1814
324784
There is no German Mark any longer. They use the Euro. But if there were, it would be about $1.00= 1.53 marks.
192942
This depends on the current political/economic welfare of the country that distributes each currency.\n\nFor instance, when the U.S. overthrew Saddam Hussien, the worth of the currency in Iraq dropped drastically.  Therefore, it was a great time to purchase Iraq currency, because from that point on it could only go up in value.  There are not many U.S. banks that exchage their currency with U.S. currency, however.  \n\nI guess my first statement probably answered your question the best.  It would take a little research to learn if you would earn anything on these exchanges.  It's kind of like the stock market - you have to know when to get out.
152670
Their is no point in holding on to them unless you are doing it for 100's of more years.  Unless their is something irregular about them they are just as much money as they have printed on them.
339269
As one of my finance professors so clearly stated it... "In God We Trust".  It is on every piece of paper and coin in the US.  There is no backing or "gold standard" of the almighty dollar anymore.  It is really just a highly accepted form of trade for a common tool for bartering.
120656
Denmark and Sweden and Iceland still use them and never converted to the Euro. Island means ICELAND
49108
Not right now. Those are still in circulation. You need to wait a few more years, decades even-- and at that those bills will only be worth a higher value if they are in mint condition.
63152
Just think, the money we use is "fiduciary" money. The key word here is fiduciary, since the value of the money we hold is based on the trust people have that the central bank will keep faith (fides) and pay as promised. In short, money has value because we believe it does.\n\nSo technically, if you could reproduce the manufacturing process and produce a dollar bill that is 100% identical to that of the government, the only real difference is that your bill is illegal, while the government's is legal. That's because the government is the only entity that is "allowed" to print paper money. Let's face it, if everyone could legally print money, it would indeed lose all its value as a means of exchange.\n\nThere really is no other difference.
531266
Yes, we should pull out. If we go any further, won't we loose all of our countries individuality? Like our money, would we have to convert to Euro's?, like France, from Francs to Euro's.\nThere must be something that can be done with £4 billion - the Nhs, schools, for example....
83463
years ago, you could turn in your currency for gold or silver.  My father had bills that you could do that....way before my time.  Take it to a coin shop they should know....I used to work at a bank and all they can tell you if it is real or not....not worth if it is more than $50
76596
The euro (symbol: €; banking code: EUR) is the official currency of the European Union and single currency for over 300 million Europeans in the following twelve European Union member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain; collectively also known as the eurozone.\n\nThe euro was introduced to world financial markets in 1999 and launched as a currency in 2002. All EU member states are eligible to join if they comply to certain monetary requirements.
395380
Currency denominations on one country are not based on currency of another country. The US dollar is a standard of measure in the US, regardless of its performance against other currencies, such as the Euro or pound.
100122
It's really a matter of the confidence of the people in our system.  Since our currency is fiat money, that means there's no gold or anything backing our money, it's only worth what people believe it to be worth.  As long as people have confidence in the system it will continue to work.  If people give up and lose faith in the system, it could theoretically collapse.  Personally I don't think it will.  That said, the advice you mentioned is good.  Those investments tend to be less affected by market forces.