Money, Money, Money, Money, Money

A 20-dirham bill.  (from Wikipedia.org)

Learning about Moroccan money has been easy.  Learning how to spend it has been hilariously difficult.   Coins as well as bills are stamped with their denomination. So a coin stamped with 10 would be the equivalent of a dime as it takes 10 of them to make a dirham. A 50 rial coin is one-half of a dirham.  So I thought, "ok, that's simple enough".  And it is.

When it comes time to actually spend the money, though, that's when the problems start. Imagine going out to shop and having the price of everything given to you in nickels or in 50-cent pieces. Or in dirhams.  Aha! Now you see where the difficulty lies.  I have absolutely no clue as to why pricing is so...flexible, but there it is.

In the suq, or open-air markets, I will be asked for mia, or a hundred nickels, which is 5 dirham's worth of vegetables.  Mia mia is 10 dirhams. Maybe the vendor will combine units of nickels and dirhams: miasteen is a hundred nickels and 3 dirhams for a total of 8 dirhams. On the other hand, I can go to a hanute, one of the neighborhood stores, and the shopkeeper may ask for 72 rial or half-dirhams, which is 36 dirhams. 

How do I manage this confusing system? I can ask for all prices in dirhams, of course, but where's the fun in that?  It's like cheating. Besides, I want to figure this out. 

I have come up with some subtle methods to help. Sometimes I will turn to a companion and have her hold up her fingers as if I were a little kid.  Or hand her some money and let her pick out the right amount. Often I will have a general idea of the total and give what I hope is a larger denomination than the actual price, so I can get change back and figure the cost in reverse.

I'm starting to get the hang of it now. But sometimes, boy, I wish I had more fingers.