Blast from the past: When travel meant juggling francs, marks, lira, and more

Before the introduction of the euro in 2002, this meant buying and exchanging a whole range of currencies – German marks, Swiss francs, French francs, Italian lira, and so on.

It was essential to have a maths genius in the group to decipher the baffling exchange rates and reassure everyone that no, they weren’t suddenly and Italian oligarch, as 100,000 lira was worth about 14p!

Wallets could be stuffed with Austrian schillings, Greek drachmas, Spanish pesetas, and Portuguese escudos — a colourful collection of notes and coins that made you feel worldly, even if you had no idea what anything actually cost.

The euro has undoubtedly simplified money management for travellers (especially, first-time backpackers) across 20 EU countries, eliminating the need to juggle exchange rates or carry multiple currencies.

However, there was a romance in having a pocketful of unfamiliar currency, each coin a tiny souvenir of a border crossed, a train boarded, a new language stumbled through.