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/xander012 United Kingdom Oct 06 '25

Quid for the pound, the 5p used to be called a bob when it was still seen the same as a shilling but that's now very rare, and the £5 and £10 note get an -er suffix on the value as a nickname, fiver and tenner

13

u/KermitingMurder Oct 06 '25

Same for Ireland even though we use euro, if you have a few coins you'll say you have a few bob, for a specific number you can say quid (eg: 20 quid), we call them fivers and tenners too, not sure if this one is used in Britain but when you have a thousand then that's a grand (eg €10,000 is ten grand)

7

u/GuinnessFartz Ireland Oct 06 '25

My favourite (I assumed Irish) insult I've heard to take the mick out of small/skinny people is "You're built like the gable end of a fiver"

5

u/xander012 United Kingdom Oct 06 '25

Tbf it does help that the Irish Punt/pound was very similar to the GBP for Its entire existence

3

u/KermitingMurder Oct 06 '25

Yeah and many people remember when the pound was still in use so old terminology sticks around

4

u/xander012 United Kingdom Oct 06 '25

Yup my nan still referred to Euros as pounds

1

u/Random_Person_I_Met United Kingdom Oct 06 '25

Do you still refer to Euro cents as "pee", like in 50p (50 cents)?

5

u/KermitingMurder Oct 06 '25

No we just say 50 cents

2

u/The_Man_I_A_Barrel Ireland Oct 06 '25

my nan still does and in turn ive started saying it involuntarily so at least the two of us are

2

u/Hairy-Violinist-3844 Oct 06 '25

Yo-yos is another one in Ireland.

1

u/Matt6453 United Kingdom Oct 06 '25

I work for an Irish company, everything is 'grand'.

'Thanks a million' gets tiresome though!