Dirty Pretty Money

I was going through some stuff this evening and I came across foreign currency.  A lot of it, actually.  I used to travel quite a bit and although you can use a credit card almost everywhere, sometimes when you're in another country there's no substitute for cash.  I found British pounds and pence, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, and Japanese yen.  These I could take to those countries now and spend.
    But I also found Italian lire, German duetschemarks, French francs, and - somehow - a couple of Spanish peseta coins even though I've never been to Spain.  These notes and coins are now worthless, all gone the way of Confederate money, replaced by the Euro.
    I liked the old money better.
   Especially the Italian lire, those Italians made some beautiful money.  I loved the coins too, like little bits of art you kept in your pocket.  The German duetschemarks not so much, it seemed like they added artwork at the end instead of at the beginning.  I thought the French francs were ugly, which is probably why I don't have more of them.  One of my peseta coins has a hole in it - on purpose - and the other one looks like it should be a part of a board game.
   Anyway... the point is that these four currencies have all been replaced by the Euro.  Good for Europe, bad for pretty Italian money.  I know, the Euro has country-specific versions, kind of like the US State quarters, but it's not nearly the same thing.  It used to be that when you traveled around Europe you picked up all different denominations, types, and sizes of local currency, a rainbow in your wallet.  Sure, it was kind of a pain, and you'd always get screwed on the exchange rate, but honestly, it was kind of fun trying to figure out a 1:1363 exchange rate between the US dollar and the Italian lira.  How do you do that math in your head?  You don't, you just hold out a wad of bills and let the cashier take enough to pay for your lunch.
   I haven't been to Europe since the conversion to the Euro.  Not sure I want to go back now.  Well, sure, to England, since they kept the pound, but I'd think twice about anywhere else.  I wouldn't want to offend the memory of the pretty, pretty lire.