Moldovan Currency

It’s been interesting making the switch from Euros and generally over-priced Holland to Lei and generally under-priced Moldova. For example, the first Sunday we were here, I hurriedly looked for what cash I had available, and I put a 1 lei bill onto the offering plate at church. Later, I figured out I donated a whopping 8 cents to the church!

With the Euro, the smallest bill that is issued is 5 Euros, or about US$6.25. Two Euro, One Euro, 50 cent, etc. coins are available, so EU pockets get quite heavy (literally)! I can often go to the store with only coins in my pocket, and walk out with what I need. Although 2 cent and 1 cent coins exist for the Euro, stores often round up to the nearest 5 cents, since (I suppose) 1 or 2 Euro-cents are too annoying to contend with.

Now, the lei. The smallest bill is 1 lei, which is worth about US$0.08. There are coins, called bani. I have seen a 5 bani coin, worth about US$0.004! Things are cheap here, but I certainly can’t go to the market with only bani and expect to buy much! The agency where we are working withdrew cash for a loan recently, and they came back with THREE KILOS of cash! (Dan went with Ivan as his “bodyguard”, but that’s another story :-) )