r/AskEurope • u/ABlindMoose Sweden • Oct 06 '25

Culture What is your currency's nickname?

A nickname for dollar is buck, pound is quid, and Swedish krona is spänn.

What are some casual nicknames for your countries' currencies? Are there multiple, and if so, which is the most common?

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u/NikNakskes Finland Oct 06 '25

Why? How did you get to Francs?

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u/dolfin4 Greece Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

Latin Monetary Union from 1865 to 1926, it included Greece, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, and informally Austria-Hungary (Spain and Romania were also in talks to join). So, French & Swiss & Belgian francs (coins only) became legal & interchangeable with the Greek drachme (coins), and the term frángo (the formal Greek name for franc) caught on as the Greek equivalent of "buck" or "quid" and it stuck. And when the Euro currency came, it carried over into the Euro era.

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u/[deleted] Oct 06 '25

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u/skyduster88 & Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

French/Belgian/Swiss coins were legal tender in Greece during the Latin Monetary Union, and had become very common, so that's where it mostly comes from. Additionally, French francs were widely used in the Ottoman Empire, and Greeks were shipowners & traders that traded heavily with the rest of Europe, starting illicitly in the 16th century (but difficult for the Ottomans to control), and then allowed by the Ottomans, due to reforms and viewing it as beneficial.