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Costs, money and banks
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Before the euro currency was introduced in January 2002
, the French unit of money was the franc (abbreviated as F or sometimes FF), divided into 100 centimes. Francs came in notes of 500, 100, 50 and 20F, and there were coins of 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1F, and 50, 20, 10 and 5 centimes. During most of 2000, the exchange rate hovered around 11.10F to the pound, 7.60F to the US dollar, 5.10F to the Canadian dollar, 4.10F to the Australian dollar, and 3.40F to the New Zealand dollar. The euro was initially pegged at just under one US dollar, but it suffered a series of declines and by late 2000 had plummeted to near the US$0.80 mark; at that stage the exchange rate was 1.67 to the pound, 1.17 to the US dollar, 0.75 to the Canadian dollar, 0.60 to the Australian dollar, and 0.47 to the New Zealand dollar. For the most up-to-date exchange rates, consult the useful Currency Converter Web site
www.oanda.com
. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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France,
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