please empty your brain below

One year ago £3 = $4.64 = €4.05
This weekend £3 = $3.66 = €3.33
But aren't those foreign tourists likely to have exchanged their dollars/euros to GBP before visiting, therefore making it a better deal for them...? I've never donated to a museum in anything other than its local currency...
I hear we are in second place behind Nigeria in the worsening of our exchange rate.
I never donate to the free national UK museums because thats what our taxes pay for. If they were that worried they should make it free to British ID holders and charge all overseas tourists £10 each!
On the contrary, they are being offered either the same deal or a better deal.

If they come from dollar or euro countries and donate dollars or euros, they are paying exactly the same as they were before (having worked for an unchanged number of minutes to earn those dollars or euros). And if they donate at the sterling rate, using pounds they have bought with those dollars or euros, it is costing them decidedly less.
The sign must be two years old. The only time since the 2008 crash that the dollar rate has been stable at that level was mid-2014. It's been downhill even since ( http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=USD&view=5Y )
Yeah, rip 'em off!
Overall now, of course it is us UK saps that are getting the worst deal of all. Or is that a touch too political for this column? No, not at all, a measure of reality.
Time for a re-valorisation methinks!
I used to work for the accountancy firm which listed St Pauls Cathedral among its clients. I still remember the internal news item which announced the great idea we'd given them, to charge an entry fee for visitors.
I don't think I'd be too far wrong in saying that, so far as the UK was concerned, that's pretty much where the whole concept of charging for entry to public buildings (later to be remodelled - due to public protest - into 'no charge as such but a pretty heavy handed "Please Donate" policy) started.
Hmmm. My reaction at the time of reading that news item was "Accountants, eh? They know the price of everything but the value of nothing."
I have few regrets about being out of it.
About 20 years ago I took a friend, his foreign wife and his parents (who had never been to London) for a tour of the City. We strayed out to St Paul's which wanted to charge £8 each, so they never did get inside. Leadenhall Market, top of Monument and Bank of England museum were much better.
The current fee to enter St Pauls is £18. Per person. Ridiculous. Attend a service and get in for free.
In 1900, the pound sterling could be used in most places around the world.

£3 in notes was exchangeable for three gold sovereigns weighing 7.322 grams each. Even if the notes were not accepted in some places, the coins would be as they could be melted down and recoined into local currency.

In the USA, £3 would have got you $14.50.

In Europe, you would have received 77 French francs, 61 Deutsche Mark or 72 Austro-Hungarian Kronen.

World Wars I and II completely destroyed the European currencies, so 61 Mark became 0.00000061 post-war(s) Mark or 0.00003 eurocents, and the other 2 were replaced by the Mark when Hitler took over. Not sure whether pre-war money became usable again after the wars, but 77 francs became 0.77 new francs or 12 eurocents, and 72 ÖHKr became 0.0072 old Schilling --> 0.0048 D-Mark --> 0.0048 new Schilling --> 0.035 eurocents.

The gold sovereigns would be worth US$27,500 at today's rates.
So dg's assertion that foreign tourists are receiving a worse deal has been demolished, but what about the museums?

If someone donates 5 euros or 5 US dollars, the museum will need to exchange these to receive usable pounds.

I work in this area so I know that if coins are donated, the museum will only get about 50% of their value, i.e. 2.50 euros or U$2.50, which has always been less than £3 and still is for the moment. If notes are donated, then perhaps they have an arrangement with Thomas Exchange Ltd. which will pay them 99% of the value, but probably they don't, and give them to Travelex who will pay 80% of the value, and you can work out the rest.










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