With his smiling, beatific face, looking like some kind of bastard love-child of Mr. Miyagi and Colonel Sanders, Ho Chi Minh graces the least valued currency in the world. At time of writing the Vietnamese đồng (VND) is worth about 0.0000421111 VND to the Euro, so 1,000,000 đồng is about €42. Although the Zimbabwean Dollar may have higher denominations of banknotes (the third issuing of the Zimbabwean Dollar had a denomination of Z$100,000,000,000,0000 [that's 100 trillion]) the curreny is suspended until June 2009. Also the Somaliland shilling is of a lower value than the đồng, but Somaliland isn't recognised as a sovereign state so the đồng is the least valued official currency currently in use.

It's a bit crazy to use, and heading to the ATM to take out 4m đồng is a surreal experience. Even the locals knock off a few zeros when they write up a bill for you, but we're living like millionaires! Damn, hell ass millionaires!

I had to repack my bag the other day and in the process of such I found a few US Dollars tucked away safely. Too safely! So I thought it would be a cool idea to talk about the types of currency I'm using along my travels. So here goes!

The United States dollar (sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of currency of the United StatesCoinage Act of 1792 to be between 371 and 416 grains (27.0 g) of silver (depending on purity). The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents. and was defined by the

Taken over by the Congress of the Confederation of the United States on July 6, 1785, the U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions. Although U.S. dollar is a fiat currency, several countries use it as their official currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. (Source Wikipedia).

I find the US Dollar a bit shit really; it's badly designed and looks gank (that's a technical term folks). All the notes are the same size which makes it really hard to tell what you're handing out and the coins don't tell you how much they're worth, they only say nickle or dime or quarter. Bloody stupid currency.

Plus it smells funny, maybe it's all the cocaine in them…