New currency available: Hong Kong Dollar

We continue to increase our offer of currencies and from today onwards we have a new currency available: Hong Kong Dollar (according to ISO 4217 its abbreviation is HKD).

Hong Kong and China

Hong Kong belongs to China, however it's considered a Special Administrative Region. This region was colonized by the United Kingdom until 1997 and after decolonization, it was very difficult to adhere to the Communist system of the rest of China.  Therefore Hong Kong enjoys a certain autonomy and a system closer to the Western one. For this reason also has its own currency.

History

Until 1863 Hong Kond didn't have its own currency and they used to trade with the currency from China or from many foreign countries. From this year first Hong Kong Dollars were minted. However it wasn't until 1935 when it was definetly established as the official currency of the Hong Kong territory. Nowadays the coins are minted by the Government and the notes are issued by three licensed banks:  Standard Chartered Bank,  HSBC and the Bank of China.

Notes and Coins

The current Hong Kong Dollar banknotes are divided into 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 dollars. On them you can see different traditional celebrations of the region, landscapes and inventions from China.

If you want to see the notes and familiarize yourself with them before your travel, visit the site from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

The Hong Kong Dollar coins are divided into 10, 20 and 50 cents and 1, 2, 5 and 10 dollars. On one side all the coins have an imagen of bauhinia blakeana, also known “Hong Kong orchid tree” and, in the other side, you'll see the value and the year of mint. If you want to see how are the coins that you will receive there, you can download this pdf file: Leaflet_e.pdf

Hong Kong Dollar Rate (HKD)

You can check the Hong Kong Dollar daily rate in our website.

Moreover you can make a reserve to have you Dollars available for your trip.

And don't be worried about your leftover Dollars. Back from your trip, you can go to your nearest branch to exchange the Hong Kong Dollars back into Euros. Remember, just notes, not coins.

Have a nice trip!