why UK  did  not  change   currency  as  other  ue  countries commerce  wise?
534820
coz we not stupid and the english people did not want it
238610
(m)\n\nThe new currency, of course, is the euro, which this year (2002) is replacing the national currencies of Spain and 11 other European countries, including Germany and France but not Great Britain. The new currency and coins became official on Jan. 1, replacing Spain's peseta and other national currencies. Although the peseta will be phased out for most uses by Feb. 28, until then transactions may take place in both currencies. After June 30, it will be difficult to trade in pesetas for the new currency. \n\nThe euro is worth 166.386 pesetas. As of January 1, 2002, the euro was worth almost $0.89 U.S. or £0.61 British, although those exchange rates will fluctuate with international economic conditions. Thus, as of this writing, something worth $10 U.S. (or £6.89) would cost €11.29. Keep in mind that monetary punctuation in Spain is reverse that of English, so the figure would be written €11,29.
1069016
Check out this website any time you want to do monetary conversions.\n\nThe exchange rate is 1.8466  So to get US Dollar Multiply your UK pound by the exchange rate.\n  Which by the way is $64.6311 USD\n\nThe exchange rate changes daily, and even hourly sometimes, so I would check here to find the most current exchange rate.\n\nhttp://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi
802978
There are so many factors that constitute to the value of pound sterling. These factors are the main determinants of the value of Pound sterling compared to other currencies.\n\nIf a currency is free-floating (like Pound sterling), its exchange rate is allowed to vary against that of other currencies and is determined by the market forces of supply and demand. Exchange rates for such currencies are likely to change almost constantly as quoted on financial markets, mainly by banks, around the world. A movable or adjustable peg system is a system of fixed exchange rates,but with a provision for the devaluation of a currency. For example, between 1994 and 2005, the Chinese yuan (CNY, ¥) was pegged to the United States dollar at ¥8.2768 to $1. The Chinese were not the only country to do this; from the end of World War II until 1970, Western European countries all maintained fixed exchange rates with the US dollar based on the Bretton Woods system. [2] The euro today can also be viewed as a fixed exchange rate system among participating European nations.\n\nA market based exchange rate will change whenever the values of either of the two component currencies change. A currency will tend to become more valuable whenever demand for it is greater than the available supply. It will become less valuable whenever demand is less than available supply (this does not mean people no longer want money, it just means they prefer holding their wealth in some other form, possibly another currency).\n\nIncreased demand for a currency is due to either an increased transaction demand for money, or an increased speculative demand for money. The transaction demand for money is highly correlated to the country's level of business activity, gross domestic product (GDP), and employment levels. The more people there are out of work, the less the public as a whole will spend on goods and services. Central banks typically have little difficulty adjusting the available money supply to accommodate changes in the demand for money due to business transactions.\n\nThe speculative demand for money is much harder for a central bank to accommodate but they try to do this by adjusting interest rates. An investor may choose to buy a currency if the return (that is the interest rate) is high enough. The higher a country's interest rates, the greater the demand for that currency. It has been argued that currency speculation can undermine real economic growth, in particular since large currency speculators may deliberately create downward pressure on a currency in order to force that central bank to sell their currency to keep it stable (once this happens, the speculator can buy the currency back from the bank at a lower price, close out their position, and thereby take a profit).\n\nIn choosing what type of asset to hold, people are also concerned that the asset will retain its value in the future. Most people will not be interested in a currency if they think it will devalue. A currency will tend to lose value, relative to other currencies, if the country's level of inflation is relatively higher, if the country's level of output is expected to decline, or if a country is troubled by political uncertainty. For example, when Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed his Government on February 24, 2004, the price of the ruble dropped. When China announced plans for its first manned space mission, synthetic futures on Chinese yuan jumped (since China's currency is officially pegged, synthetic markets have emerged that can behave as if the yuan was floating).\n\nLike the stock exchange, money can be made or lost on the foreign exchange market by investors and speculators buying and selling at the right times. Currencies can be traded at spot and foreign exchange options markets. The spot market represents current exchange rates, whereas options are derivatives of exchange rates.
18351
No -- most countries do not have a gold standard.  Currencies are mostly valued based on the amount a country exports -- and also comparing this to the amount that a country imports.\n\nSuppose that Japan suddenly created a new high-demand export.  Say, personal flying cars.  Then, people would want to buy those flying cars, and to do so, they would need Yen.  So all the american importers with dollar and european importers with euroes would go to the currency market to exchange their currency for yen so they could import the flying cars to sell in their own countries.  And the people selling Yen would see a great demand for their limited supply, and they would sell the yen to the highest bidder.  This would make the Yen cost more in terms of dollars or euroes, which is good for the yen's valuation (and all this had nothing to do with gold).\n\nLikewise, if Japan suddently wanted to importa a lot of stuff, they'd have to exchange their Yen for other currencies, and this desire to "sell" yen would cause Yen to lose value.\n\nSo overall, the more a country produces that other countries want to buy, the higher its currency is valued.  The more a country wants to buy stuff from other countries, the lower its currency is valued.
1072499
You need to know the exchange rate to convert one form of currency in to another. \nTry this link : http://www.xe.com/ucc/
441013
There would be two problems - getting readers that count the foreign currency, and getting up-to-date conversion rates sent to it, so that you con't get cheated by currency rates changing.\n\nYou'd have to set it up so that it either gets an update once per day, say, or like an ATM, it would 'phone home' for every transaction to verify rates.  A daily update would be more efficient.\n\nAnother problem would be displaying the prices.  You'd need a touch-screen with a menu system, first showing a menu of currencies accepted, and then the items for sale (so that you can display the menu in the currency of choice)  If the item menu displays the prices in several different currencies at once, it would be too cumbersome.\n\nHer's another option - say you are returning from Europe with a few Euros here, a few pounds there, some Rials, and a few Rands.  It would be cool to select an item and just start feeding in all those different currencies until the item is paid for, and it spits out change in Dollars or something.  This would make displaying prices difficult, since you are using several currencies to pay for an item, but this would be a valuable thing to have in airports around the world.\n\nInteresting idea.
451913
In the UK before 1971, there was a different monetary system in place, with three basic levels - pounds, shillings and pence.\nPence is another word for pennies, or single coins like 1 cent pieces.\nIn the old "Imperial" system, it worked like this:\n1/4 of a penny = farthing\n1/2 of a penny = half-penny (or ha'penny)\n1 penny = 1 "pence"\n3 pence - Threepenny piece (or Thruppenny Bit)\n6 pence - Sixpence\n12 pence = 1 shilling\n20 shillings = 1 pound \nMaking 240 pennies, or pence, to the pound.\n\nThere were other coins amounting to specific amounts within the system. The Florin, for instance, was worth two shillings (or 24 pence). The Half-Crown, just for fun, was worth two shillings and six pence (30 pence in total) and the Crown, understandably, was worth two Half-Crowns (equivalent to 5 shillings, or 70 pence). And finally the Guinea, which was worth one pound and one shilling (21 shillings, or 252 pence)\n\nIn 1971, the UK joined the metric system, based on there being 100 pence in every pound. The currency was also revalued, so that a shilling was now only worth 5 pence, rather than 12, so that there were still 20 shillings in a pound (largely to help people deal with the change when budgetting their weekly shopping!)\n\nAs far as I know the Crown and Half-Crown are no longer in active use - if you think about it, a half-crown, being worth two shillings and six pence, would now be a coin worth 16 pence, which is a little unweildy for shopping purposes. And similarly, the crown, being worth five shillings, would now be worth one pound twenty-five pence.\n\nSo now in the UK, we have the following units\n1p - one penny or one pence\n2p - two pence\n5p - five pence (one shilling)\n10p - ten pence (two shillings)\n20p - twenty pence (for some reason, calling this four shilings hasn't caught on)\n50p - fifty pence (ten shillings)\n£1 - one pound\n£2 - two pounds - the newest coin to be introduced. After this we go to notes, with £5 being the first.\n\nHowever, just to confuse matters even further, you'll still find mention of guineas and crowns in particular settings - several high-profile horse races award prizes in guineas and crowns. But for the majority of the population, they don't exist as actual coins any more. Incidentally, while researching this answer, I've discovered there was also a half-guinea and a five-guinea coin prior to decimalisation. \n\nSource(s):\n\nhttp://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/histdate/...\nhttp://www.simetric.co.uk/si_imperial.ht...\nhttp://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl...\nhttp://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl...
471369
In the UK before 1971, there was a different monetary system in place, with three basic levels - pounds, shillings and pence.\nPence is another word for pennies, or single coins like 1 cent pieces.\nIn the old "Imperial" system, it worked like this:\n1/4 of a penny = farthing\n1/2 of a penny = half-penny (or ha'penny)\n1 penny = 1 "pence"\n3 pence - Threepenny piece (or Thruppenny Bit)\n6 pence - Sixpence\n12 pence = 1 shilling\n20 shillings = 1 pound \nMaking 240 pennies, or pence, to the pound.\n\nThere were other coins amounting to specific amounts within the system. The Florin, for instance, was worth two shillings (or 24 pence). The Half-Crown, just for fun, was worth two shillings and six pence (30 pence in total) and the Crown, understandably, was worth two Half-Crowns (equivalent to 5 shillings, or 70 pence). And finally the Guinea, which was worth one pound and one shilling (21 shillings, or 252 pence)\n\nIn 1971, the UK joined the metric system, based on there being 100 pence in every pound. The currency was also revalued, so that a shilling was now only worth 5 pence, rather than 12, so that there were still 20 shillings in a pound (largely to help people deal with the change when budgetting their weekly shopping!)\n\nAs far as I know the Crown and Half-Crown are no longer in active use - if you think about it, a half-crown, being worth two shillings and six pence, would now be a coin worth 16 pence, which is a little unweildy for shopping purposes. And similarly, the crown, being worth five shillings, would now be worth one pound twenty-five pence.\n\nSo now in the UK, we have the following units\n1p - one penny or one pence\n2p - two pence\n5p - five pence (one shilling)\n10p - ten pence (two shillings)\n20p - twenty pence (for some reason, calling this four shilings hasn't caught on)\n50p - fifty pence (ten shillings)\n£1 - one pound\n£2 - two pounds - the newest coin to be introduced. After this we go to notes, with £5 being the first.\n\nHowever, just to confuse matters even further, you'll still find mention of guineas and crowns in particular settings - several high-profile horse races award prizes in guineas and crowns. But for the majority of the population, they don't exist as actual coins any more. Incidentally, while researching this answer, I've discovered there was also a half-guinea and a five-guinea coin prior to decimalisation.
416789
A countries rate of exchange can change for numerous reasons but one topical reason could be the threat of 'terror'. Currency fluctuation work on the supply & demand theory. If no one is demanding (wants it) the currency, then the price will drop. This in turn means that if there is anything negative floating around about a country, then it is very likely that fewer people will want their currency (business & toursism - busniess is the greaterst consumer of international currency). Think of a country as a business and this makes more sense - a business with a lot of bad press or with a level of uncertainty will attract fewer customers/sales.\n\nMany countries still use the US Dollar as the international media of exchange but increasingly this depandance is being reduced as traders/business/Coutries increase their use of the Euro. This is having a real effect on the US economy and a reason that Mr Bush isn't a huge fan of Europe and it's enlargement.
302770
Put it this way: The current exchange rate from US$ to UK Pounds is 1 USD = 0.57 GBP. So, for every $1 you give to the exchange person, he will give you 57 pence back. $152.20 in UK pounds is 87 pounds 30 pence.
965341
Foreign Exchange works on the same principles as the stock market really.  There are people whose job it is to buy and sell currency, changing the value of those currencies.\n\nFor individuals going on holiday, the difference is not likely to make too much of a difference, but for companies that deal in multi-currencies, this can make a significant difference to income.  For example, as a company in the UK, with GBP(£) as your base rate, but invoicing companies in USD($)\n\nIf the exchange rate in the month is 1.82 $ to the £:\nOriginal invoice of $5,000 =  £2,747.26\n\nIf the invoice is paid in a later month when the exchange rate has dropped to say 1.78 $ to the £:\n$5,000 = £2,808.99\n\nThe Foreign Exchange Difference results in a gain of £61.73.  \n\nYou can see from this example how much of an impact a small change in exchange rates can have on a fairly small invoice.  If the invoice is much larger and the exchange rate goes in the other direction, money can be lost as well.
858263
I'm not bothered either way really. It's about even.\n\nThe main argument for not joining is that the UK loses control of its own interest rates, about the only 'lever' that the government has to control the economy.\n\nAn interest rate set to suit the whole EU might not suit the UK. At the moment, unemployment rates are low. The government needs to consider how they would pull out of another early-80s style unemployment crisis. Dropping interest rates might be the only way to stimulate business. If the EU doesn't let you do that, you can get 'stag-flation', a combination of stagnation (lack of economic growth) and inflation, which  France and Germany haven't fully got out of.\n\nYou can't stimulate business any more using government subsidies, because they aren't allowed by the EU or the WTO (World Trade Organisation).\n\nInterest rates obviously have a strong effect on house prices and also affect business profitability and whether international companies see more or less profit from setting up in the UK or somewhere else.\n\nIts all a question of the supply and demand for money, as far as borrowers are concerned. When it comes to mortgages and things, higher interest rates means less demand for loans, but a higher cost if you do actually take one out.\n\nArguments in favour of joining the euro are that there would be no more foreign exchange transaction fees, both for businesses and when you jet off to Spain, accountancy would be simpler for multi-national firms and for firms that import/export goods or services to/from the present EU zone.
652078
Denmark has not introduced the euro. This is a consequence of the Edinburgh Decision which was drawn up after the rejection of the Maastricht Treaty at the referendum held in Denmark in June 1992. The Edinburgh Decision was endorsed, together with the Maastricht Treaty, by a Danish referendum in May 1993. On 28 September a majority (53.1 per cent) of the Danish electorate rejected Danish adoption of the euro. As a consequence Denmark remains outside the Eurosystem along with Sweden and the United Kingdom. However, the Danish krone is linked closely to the euro via ERMII, in continuation of the present Danish fixed-exchange-rate policy.
561026
It boils down to "what can that currency buy?" The pound has always been very strong vs the dollar. It has much to do with the economy of both nations, and what each is doing to keep its finances in check.\nThe UK economy is strong, has influence in the world, and I doubt that Mr.Blair is running a Trillion dollar deficit.
578029
There are spot exchange rates, what someone exchanges at the moment (these actually have little effect)\nThere are future exchange rates which is included in a contract my companies of different countries.  Such as British Company is selling an asset to American Company for 100,000 Pounds due in 30 days.  The equivalent price of the asset in dollars to the 100,000 pounds is the exchange rate.  These types of exchange rates typically make up the rate.\n\nThese two things make up the current exchange rate showing its intense variablity.\n\nTrying to make a model to determine exchange rates has led to many flaws using prices, real and nominal rates, and inflation in order to determine them.
819019
It's a market. Countries, banks, companies buy and sell the currencies the need for their business and the law of supply and demand determines the exchange rates.\nThere are a few exceptions: a lot of currencies are not convertible outside the country where they are issued, and some currencies like the Chinese Yuan are pegged to the dollar, meaning that the exchange rate fluctuates only between small boundaries.