Originally Posted by
SJOGuy
The other thing that surprised me was that you could get colones in London at all. You had to have paid a hefty premium for that transaction. And for them to stick you with a couple of 50,000 bills was downright mean, although I doubt they are aware of the dynamics.
You can more or less get any currency you want in London, though sometimes you need to have contacts. However, CRC are easily obtained by the general public from places like Thomas Exchange, where you can call up in advance to check what denominations they have. They usually give you a mix but they probably don't have fifty 1000s. It seems that
Swiss Tony received two 50mil bills which would be the case if he ordered several hundred thousands.
Independent shopkeepers in London aren't pleased if you pay for a £15 purchase with a £50 either so I would not expect a Costa Rican establishment to be happy giving 35000 change for a 50mil.
Currencies which are difficult to obtain in London are things like Transnistrian rubles, Macanese patacas and Nagorno-Kabarakh dram. Although the only thing I have not yet managed to find at all are South Sudan pounds.