Via Geoff’s blog I find this fascinating, chiefly wondering what the IRS will do if it becomes popular. Through friends and my trips through Europe I’ve learned a more flexible approach to payment-in-local-currency (USD in Ethiopia, GBP and EUR in non-eurozone Denmark) – but somehow the notion of that flexibility being available in the home of the mighty dollar is something like being told that Father Christmas Santa Claus does not exist…

New York Merchants Embrace Euro – washingtonpost.com

“Euros Only” reads a handmade sign in Billy’s Antiques & Props on East Houston Street in Manhattan. But that’s really just an attention grabber. Actually, owner Billy Leroy explains, the store will accept Canadian dollars and British pounds, and U.S. dollars, too.

Leroy is one of a small but growing group of New York merchants in tourist-favored neighborhoods such as SoHo, the East Village and Times Square who have begun to accept the euro and other foreign currencies.

With the dollar near its lowest rate ever against the euro and the numbers of international tourists in New York at all-time highs, some store owners figure accepting the euro offers a convenience to customers and sometimes generates a stockpile of a strong currency for themselves.

Leroy began accepting euros after a buying trip to a Paris flea market in November, when the exchange rate meant he couldn’t afford to purchase his usual volume of dressers, mirrors and wax figurines. This is his way to raise euros back home.

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