I was recently reading some of Snopes.com (the site that debunks fake news items, urban myths, and odd rumours.) They had new item on an employee in Taco bell who frefused to accept a US $2 bill, claimning it had to be fake because they didn’t have a $2 bill. Yes, that’s a bit odd. But back in the early 1990s, I had a couple of odd events in the USA of similar type.
It also doesn’t help when you and the currency are genuinely foreign. Back in 1991 I was about to leave New Zealand for a holiday, staying initially with friends in New Jersey. As I was now a published author, my friend had alerted his local newspaper to my arrival and as my latest story had just appeared in MZB’s Fantasy Magazine, they planned to interview/photograph me. The night before the reporter rang diffidently to ask “She does speak English, doesn’t she?” A question that when relayed to me left me helpless with laughter. And yes, I do, as does pretty much everyone in New Zealand.
    Matters going on from there when I purchased a number of books from my host and paid in $50 NZ bills in a letter sent after my return. He took them to the bank which refused them on the spot as ‘trying to deposit monopoly money,” and “was he aware that passing fake cash is a crime.” It took him some time to convince the bank manager that New Zealand cash is both valid and worth real money with a regularly listed bank exchange rate. That story too when relayed to me left me giggling.
3 comments
Years ago I had something similar happen with British pounds.
Oh my. The ignorance of some folk.
At the hotel I used to work at, two ladies came by the front desk and asked where our Asst. Manager was from, as they’d noticed the accent. “New Zealand,” I said. “Well, she sure does speak good English.”
The problem is us Americans don’t know nothing.
I sure wish people in New Zealand would buy my books.