Currency to Country Quiz

Match currencies to their countries.

Match currencies to their countries — and learn which currencies are shared, because those are the ones that unlock several answers at once.

The shared currencies are the shortcut

Most currencies belong to exactly one country, which makes them one-to-one clues. The interesting cases are the shared ones, because getting the currency gets you a whole group:

The euro is used by a large bloc of European states, and by several microstates and territories outside the formal union.
The West African CFA franc is shared by a group of West African countries, and the Central African CFA franc by a separate group — two distinct currencies with confusingly similar names, both pegged to the euro.
The East Caribbean dollar is shared across a set of small island states.
The US dollar is official in several countries beyond the United States, including Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama alongside its own currency.
The Australian dollar is used by several Pacific states.

Currency names that encode history

Currency names are often a map of past empire and trade, which makes them genuinely useful memory hooks:

Peso across much of Latin America and the Philippines, from Spanish colonial coinage.
Real in Brazil, from Portuguese.
Rupee across South Asia, and rupiah in Indonesia — the same root.
Dinar across North Africa and the Middle East, descended from the Roman denarius.
Dirham likewise, from the Greek drachma.
Krona, krone, króna across the Nordic countries, all meaning crown.
Pound in the UK, Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan and others, reflecting British influence.

Notice the pattern and you can often guess a currency from a country's history even when you have never learned it.

The traps

Several countries use a currency with the same name as their neighbour's but a completely separate value — the various dollars, pounds and francs are not interchangeable. And Switzerland uses the franc while its neighbours use the euro, which catches people who assume the euro covers all of Western Europe.

Where to go next

Language to Country works on exactly the same principle: a shared attribute that groups countries together and gives you several answers from one fact.

Frequently asked questions

Which countries use the CFA franc?

Two separate currencies share the name. The West African CFA franc is used by a group of West African states and the Central African CFA franc by a separate group of Central African ones. Both are pegged to the euro, and the similar names are a common source of confusion.

Which countries use the US dollar besides the United States?

Several have adopted it officially, including Ecuador, El Salvador and Panama, along with a number of small territories. Many more peg their own currency to it without using it directly.

Why do so many countries use a currency called the peso?

It descends from Spanish colonial coinage, so it spread with the Spanish Empire across Latin America and to the Philippines. The various pesos are separate currencies with different values, sharing only the name and the history.

Play Currency → Country offline in the app

Currency to Country Quiz and the rest of the arcade are in the free Geography Quiz Arcade app: Get it on Google Play · Download on the App Store.