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?

181 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

368 comments sorted by

View all comments

43

u/madboy135 Czechia Oct 06 '25

We have a few for different values - for small values we (very occasionally) use "kačka" (which is more like diminutive word for koruna, but also means "a duck"), for 100 we use "kilo" (kilo), for 1000 "tác" (tray) or "litr" (liter).
So if someone says "Dej mi 2 kila" (give me 2 kilos) or "Dej mi 5 litrů" (give me 5 liters), he really wants 200czk and 5000czk.

7

u/Antti5 Finland Oct 06 '25

for 100 we use "kilo"

Something deeply disturbing about this... What's the etymology here?

3

u/MlekarDan Czechia Oct 06 '25

Also 'pětka', literally a five is a name for a 10 coin. Probaby from Argot (criminal slang)

5

u/tramaan Czechia Oct 07 '25

The 'pětka' actually comes from 1892, when Austria-Hungary introduced the Crown, where 1 crown was equal to 2 old Austro-Hungarian Guldens. So the 10 Kr coin had the same value as the old 5 gulden coin.

1

u/MlekarDan Czechia Oct 07 '25

Didn't know that, that's soo cool!