Pounds are awesome.

Look at this currency.  Just look at it.  It’s gorgeous.  Each denomination is a different color.  There’s a see-through window with a finely detailed image of Winchester Cathedral.  There’s a holographic strip with cool images.  There’s ultraviolet script.  There’s a quill that changes color depending on how the note is tilted. There’s a silver foil patch containing a 3D image of the coronation crown and when the note is tilted there’s a freaking rainbow.  Also Churchill!  Jane Austin!  Oh yeah and the Queen!  I mean, just try counterfeiting that situation.

This puts our sad green Monopoly money to shame.

I suppose the Brits have had a head start.  The pound sterling is the oldest existing currency, with origins in continental Europe in the Roman era.  In 928, Athelstan, the first king of England, adopted sterling as the first national currency.  By the way, his mother’s name was Ecgwynn – why is this not the most popular baby name?  And in case you think inflation is not a thing, around 980 A.D. one pound could buy 15 head of cattle.

One of the most fun things about international travel is getting the money.  In advance, because it’s fresh and new, and you are ready to rock and roll the moment you disembark, rather than being all, “Oh, wait, I have to wait in line at this gross window in the airport to get the money.”

The best thing is that this bejeweled Jane Austin money means nothing, so it can be spent with abandon and without consequence.  And more than anything else, it creates that traveling frame of mind.  It takes you out of your life and deposits you into the adventure ahead.  Like when you get into a time machine or travel to an alien planet.  You have to wear the appropriate clothes and also you must have the money.

Here we go.  T minus twelve days.   Ready to go forth and buy the cattle.