since the only people who read this are my parents and sister (I think), its more of a family email... SO, i will take this time to express my frustration with the Chilean Coin system.
To begin, everything is is millions. Now, just when I thought I was comfortable with numbers in spanish, i´m dealing with tens of millions of pesos at once, and it can get slightly overwhelming at times.
However, I´ve conquered my number woes, and have moved onto much deeper things that frustrate me when using the local currency, such as...small change.
It is very rare to receive change in denominations below 50 pesos. Occasionally, they´ll hand you 10 pesos, equivelant of the dime. Now, I should stress that the dime is totally useless, and occasionally I will gather all my loose dimes up and pay for my busfare (which is about 250 pesos). The driver always gives me a dirty look, and I just want to yell YOU GAVE ME THE DIME ON MY LAST RIDE!
However, the real issue pending here, the underlying problem where all my anger and frustration is rooted at lies with the Chilean Penny. One Peso. It resembles a piece of sturdy tinfoil, that with slight energy can be broken into two pieces. It is also worth .002 of a US Penny. Thats right, 2, ten-thousanths of a penny. I am fairly confident it takes more money with energy, man power, and distribution to create and produce this chilean penny, than it is actually worth. This could result in devestating losses for the government of Chile. Do they realize this? If I was more confident in spanish (and more conversational, which I´m not), I would write a letter of concern to the Treasury department of Chile, informing them of my queries. However, several things come to mind when I contemplate this. 1) I don´t know if they HAVE a treasury department in Chile 2) I could risk deportation, although I don´t actually live here, and am managing to ¨live¨ on a tourist Visa which must be renewed every 90 days. 3) I must assume that no one cares, because there MUST have been SOME person in the past who agreed with me and mentioned this...yet nothing was done
Inflation does terrible things to foreigners who have to use the local currency. I think its a decoy because its really easy to get confused and overpay- which COULD explain why Chile has the most stable economy in all of South America. This looks like a conspiracy to me
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