April 1, 2019 by Brianna McCue Spanish Abroad, Spanish News & Culture, Travel

Spanish Currencies: Your Own Personal Currency Travel Guide

Do you remember the Fun with Spanish Flags blog post we shared with you a few weeks ago? With that post, we learned about the 21 Spanish-speaking countries in South America that not only have different flags, but also different currencies. Our currency travel guide attempts to organize the complicated matter of Spanish currencies in an understandable way that will be useful for you during your time abroad.

Our first matter of duty of course, will be to get organized! To do that, we will need to go over the peso, the dollar, as well as the irregular, independent, and self-named currencies!

Spanish Currency Table

Before we begin, you might want to enjoy this hilarious and cheesy youtube video about currencies in Latin America. Sing along to a quick summary of what every Spanish-speaking country uses to buy with! If you’d rather not bother with the catchy song, here is a list for reference:

Summary

To summarize, out of the 21 countries and territories:

8 countries use pesos
3 countries use US dollars
10 use “irregular” country currencies

With that in mind, let’s explore why these currencies are not all the same and how it came to be this way.

Types of Spanish Currency

The Peso

Because the economy is always changing, and According to WorldAtlas.com, the countries that use the Peso are as follows:

The Dollar

Well, you are all ready to use, give, and save your pesos, but what about something more familiar like dollars? Do you think it will be similar? Well, let’s take a look and see.

countries that use the US dollar as currency

Irregular Spanish Currencies

Now that you’ve got Spanish currencies down, let me show you some of the “irregular” Spanish currencies that are uniquely used in only one country.

These so-called “irregular” currencies are more like works of art than they are currencies. Despite the pressures of colonization, these countries have kept the details of their heritage embedded in symbols within their currency, such as the names of their currency. Interestingly enough, they are all based on national birds, indigenous groups, and even great warriors and explorers who the people remember. For more details on this, check out these facts from Onda Trading Facts.

The Value of Money

Whether you are a collector of Spanish currencies, have a huge bucket list to travel to every Spanish-speaking company, or actually DO win that final round of Spanish Quotes from the game show in our last blog post, understanding Spanish currency is an essential tool. The value of money always changes, but its history does not. Try to put a price on that!