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Currency is a medium of exchange for services and goods. In brief, it’s money, in the shape of paper or coins, usually issued by a government, commonly taken at its face value as a payment method and circulated within its jurisdiction.
Many nations accept the U.S. dollar for pay, while others peg their currency value directly to the American dollar.
The world map below shows which governments use their own currencies and which don’t.
According to this map, all countries can be divided into several categories.
1. Countries that have their own currency. There are an absolute majority of such countries globally (131 nations and four dependent territories).
2. Monetary Unions
Euro. It is the best-known instance of nations not using their own currency. Euro is used by 19 of the 28 member countries of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the Netherlands).
West African CFA franc. Eight countries in West Africa use it (Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo).
Central African CFA franc. Six nations use it in Central Africa (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon).
East Caribbean Dollar. Six independent countries use it (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and British overseas territories of Anguilla and Montserrat).
CFP franc. It is used by 3 dependent territories, overseas French collectivities of French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna.
3. Countries using their own currency and currency of another country (14 countries and ten dependent territories).
Countries that use each other’s currency exchangeable (Brunei and Singapore);
Nation that use other currency (U.S. dollar, Australian dollar, rand etc.) along their own money (Kiribati, Liberia, Lesotho and others);
Countries that use their own coins but only U.S. dollar banknotes are used (East Timor, Ecuador, and Panama);
Zimbabwe has the U.S. dollar as the lawful currency for government operations, as well as eight other currencies as lawful tender in addition to its own money;
Many dependent territories that use both their independent state’s currency along its own currency (Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Faroe Islands, etc.);
Some dependent territories use some third nation’s currency along its own or its sovereign state’s currency (i.e., Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, uses both its own dollar and the U.S. dollar; Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French Overseas Collectivity, operates both euros and the Canadian dollars).
4. Nations that don’t have their currency instead use another country’s currency (12 nations and many dependent territories).
Many of these independent nations are either European microstates (Andorra, Monaco, etc.), island countries (Nauru, Palau, etc.), or just tiny nations deciding to adopt some world currency, commonly the euro or the U.S. dollar, as a point of comfort (Montenegro, Kosovo, El Salvador);
Some countries and dependent territories use other countries’ currencies differently from their sovereign state’s currency. For instance, The official currency of Greenland is the Danish krone. While the British Overseas Territories (British Indian Ocean Territory, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the British Virgin Islands) use the U.S. dollar instead).
