Every time we move to a new country we have to get used to new money and new exchange rates. It's a bit of a challenge at first, but after awhile you sort of know that something priced 30NT in Taiwan is only $1.00. Liberia has simplified things and made them more complicated all at once.
Where to begin... One US dollar is equal to about 150 Liberian dollars. That's a crazy big multiplication problem every time I want to buy something! I exchanged a $20 bill and got the wad of cash above. I tried to shove it in my purse and not make a display out of counting the money. I then stopped at a table to buy a head of garlic and had to rummage through my money to find a 10. It was a lot to manage!
Here's where things get sort of crazy. Liberia uses two currencies: The US Dollar and the Liberian Dollar. I'm starting to get the hang of where I use what. If I go to an actual grocery store the prices will be in US dollars and I pay in US dollars. If I go to the street market the prices will be in Liberian dollars and I pay in Liberian dollars. But they don't use any coins here so if I go to the grocery store and my bill comes to $50.75 and I give them $60 US dollars then they will give me $8.00 US and 38 Taiwan dollars in change.
This brought up the question of where do the US dollars come from? Does Liberia buy them from the US Treasury? I asked around a bit and from what I gather from the people who should know is that they rely on money being brought into the country. I came off the plane with a suitcase full of dollars so now they have come into circulation here. From the looks of the money, none ever get taken out of circulation. There's no way they could do that because there's nothing backing that money. So I use my overly worn, dirty, floppy dollars here that would never be used back home. I might begin looking at dates on the money and see what the oldest one I can find is.
This brought up the question of where do the US dollars come from? Does Liberia buy them from the US Treasury? I asked around a bit and from what I gather from the people who should know is that they rely on money being brought into the country. I came off the plane with a suitcase full of dollars so now they have come into circulation here. From the looks of the money, none ever get taken out of circulation. There's no way they could do that because there's nothing backing that money. So I use my overly worn, dirty, floppy dollars here that would never be used back home. I might begin looking at dates on the money and see what the oldest one I can find is.
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