The numbers 1, 50 and 2 answer most questions about the “Yes, we take Euros” sign taped to the Philadelphia Filly sandwich cart on the 16th Street Mall.
“One is the exchange rate – one dollar per euro. Fifty is the number of euro we’ve gotten since the sign went up, and two is the number of people who have asked us ‘What’s a euro?”‘ says Sally Rock, who owns the cart with her husband, Dale Goin.
Without really meaning to, Rock and Goin, who spend most of the winter globetrotting, have become hedgers in the currency market, accepting the legal tender of united Europe as payment for cheesesteak sandwiches made in the USA.
“They’re buying euro at a buck? They could walk into the Wells Fargo branch and sell them for $1.23. They’re making a killing buying an asset for a lot less than the market value,” says Bryan Petersen, assistant vice president of Wells Fargo’s Foreign Exchange Services, his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.
Rock and Goin’s foray into foreign currency started out as a joke. A sauced and likely homeless man staggered up to the cart back in May and offered a dollar for a $2.50 bowl of soup. About to be turned away, he dug into his pocket and pulled out a 5-euro note.
Rock served him soup, gave him $2.50 in change and hung up the sign.
A few weeks later, at the Boulder Creek Festival, the Philadelphia Filly cart attracted customers happy to have a stateside place to spend leftover euro notes and coins.
Although the weak dollar has boosted European travel to Denver, so far, no foreign tourists have paid in euro.
That’s a function of the plastic-
driven global economy, that allows travelers to withdraw the currency of the country from an ATM at a good exchange rate, Petersen says. “We default to the credit card. In America, you can do a debit transaction for $1 and no one cares.”
Since the Philadelphia Filly started accepting euro, only one customer has pulled his money back after finding out the one-to-one exchange rate.
Rock says her customers often are at a loss for what to do with their leftover euro.
“One lady said she went to her bank and tried to exchange her euro and the teller said ‘Why don’t you keep it as a souvenir?’ She said she might have, if she didn’t have 2,000,” Rock says.
Euro can be painlessly traded for dollars in three Denver locations. Wells Fargo at 1700 Lincoln St. changes up to $100 in bills in good condition without a fee. Travel Organizers at 555 17th St. charges a flat $6 to change euro, and Travelex Travel Services, in the US Bank in Cherry Creek charges $5.50 to exchange up to $550 in euro.
Plenty of travelers arrive at home with a pile of 1- and 2-euro coins hiding at the bottom of their suitcase, or small denomination bills stuffed in a pocket. It’s often enough to add up to something, but not enough to justify paying a fee to exchange. And banks and exchanges don’t take the coins.
“May as well save it and buy a cheesesteak,” Rock says.
