In the first Harry Potter book, Harry finds out he is a wizard, and not an ordinary person ('muggle' is the wizard word for that.) As Harry finds out he is going to be going to Hogwarts, the wizard school, he has to go shopping in wizard stores. The book does a great job of talking about his first experience in this strange, foreign land, and how Harry must learn to use wizard money and purchase strange books and foods. This is exactly how I first felt when I began shopping here in Hong Kong.
The first time I went to the ATM and got money out, it felt so strange so see these unusual sized bills. It was so foreign for me to walk through the store looking at all these products that had writing on them in Chinese. It was difficult for me to pay for something and to use coins as I wasn't sure which coin was worth how much, and the lady behind the cash register actually just reached in to my handful of coins and grabbed what was needed instead of waiting for me to figure it out.
As I have mentioned earlier, the exchange rate is 7.78 HK dollars to 1.00 US dollar, so when I see prices in the store, I still have to think about how much it is actually costing me. It still seems weird when I pay 6 dollars for a coke, or I go out to eat and a meal is about $75 depending on the restaurant.
The money here is actually very easy to use, once you figure it all out. In fact, it is even easier to use than US money I believe. The largest bill (which is not included in the picture below) is a $1,000 note. They are fairly hard to come by and aren't really popular as there have been some counter fitting problems with the bill. The $1,000 note is the largest of all the cash bills. The bill size decrease with lower values. The other notes pictured below are $500, $100, $50, $20, and $10.
The coins are more similar to US coins as they vary in size. The smallest coin is 10 cents, and it is a very small, round coin. The next is the 20 cent coin which is small, but with a wavy edge on it. Next is a 50 cent coin which is larger than the 10 cent coin, smooth sides, but with groves on it, like a quarter in the US. The $1 coin is about the same size as a quarter and has smooth edges, with groves, but is larger than the 50 cent piece. The two dollar coin is a large coin with wavy edges. I think $5 and $10 coins are the most unique. The $5 is the size of a quarter, but feels like you have taken three quarters and glued them together, one of top of the other. It has a discernible ridge in the middle of of the edges. The $10 coin is actually smaller than the $5, but has a copper colored center, with a silver surround, and on the edge it has alternating areas of grooved and smooth.
I said this money is easier to use than US money because everybody can use this money, even the blind. One of my favorite movies is called Ray, and it is about the life of Ray Charles (for those of you who don't know, he was a blind jazz and blues piano player.) In the movie, there is a scene where someone is paying Ray for a gig he just played, and is counting out his pay verbally as if laying down $5 bills, but he is actually laying down $1 bills. Since all the US money is the same size, Ray can't tell his he is being cheated or not. Now that I have been using HK money, I find it very unique that I can tell the size of the currency just by feeling it, and not having to see it. If the US had money in various sizes, Ray wouldn't have had the problem he did in the movie.
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