When I saw the light of this world, the currency was of course the Czechoslovak koruna. And, in fact, for a long time, it was the only currency I had ever longed for. As long as I had the Czechoslovakian koruna, I could buy anything sold in the stores. So more than once I used my pocket money and wandered around squares, stores, and pubs, hoping that someone had lost at least five heiras. Yes, even five-cent coins were in circulation back then. And once you found a two-crown, it was a big deal.
But I grew up and realized that it didn\’t end with just crowns. That there is a better kind of money. So-called convertible money. Because although I could only pay in tzedeks with convertible bills, I could buy attractive goods that more than compensated for their limited use. And if they were lucky, they could also go to developed foreign countries where they could pay with convertible notes.
But times have changed. And a time has come when we can travel more freely, and ultimately, totally freely. And so I gradually acquired the Czechoslovak Federation, the Czechoslovak Union, and finally money outside of the Czech crown. At first it was exciting, but as time went on, as we became a normal country with a normal economy, it got old. The Austrian shilling, the East German shilling, the West German mark, the American dollar, the Canadian dollar, the Turkish lira, the Italian lira, the French franc, the Swiss franc, the Polish zloty, the South African rand, and, of course, the euro.
Fortunately, I have spent most of my life in the free countries of today. Foreign currency was not as rare as it was in the days of my comrades. Hence, there was no need to hopelessly seek the withholding of foreign currency in the hope of an expensive handout.
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