The Tao of Cha-Ching

I went to an Italian bank, this morning, to cash a cashiers check for $200.

Like the banks in Bosnia and Croatia, however, the banks in Italy do not cash cashiers checks. Nor do they exchange money for Croatian money (kuna). Nor in fact do they exchange money for American silver dollars. To the banks in Italy, a silver dollar is a dollar. The fact that it is silver (that is, worth over forty dollars) is irrelevant. I might be able to get half a Euro for a silver dollar that is worth about 20 Euros.

Here is how it went:

The first bank that I approached here in Bergamo, Credito Popolare, said that I should "go to the tobacconist" to get my cashiers check cashed.

At the tobacconist, the kind gentleman said that I should go to Credito Popolare to get my cashiers check cashed. This made sense to me, but I explained that I had just been there and that Credito Popolare had said to come here. The tobacconist got on the internet and said that I should to Banca Popolare, a bit farther down the road, and they would cash my cashiers check.

At Banca Popolare, they informed me that their particular branch would not cash my cashiers check, but that their other, bigger, branch would, and that the bigger branch would also exchange money for my kuna and possibly for my silver dollar.

Colorful Croatian kuna.

U.S. silver dollar, worth over forty dollars.

At the bigger branch, a few blocks down the road, the kind lady informed me that in fact they don't exchange money for cashiers checks, or for kuna, or for silver dollars.

I thanked her very much and went back to the bed and breakfast, where I am staying for three nights thanks to the generosity of Nenad Djurdjevic, who, like me, believes in pyramids, people, and even fate, but not banks.

Nenad Djurdjevic, with the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun in the background.

Tomorrow, the adventure continues.