Currencies you cannot take out of the country

The reason to withdraw less on your last day than your first.

A "closed" or restricted currency is one a country limits moving across its borders. The rules vary from a formal legal restriction to a practical one — the currency is technically exportable but no bureau outside the country will touch it.

Either way the effect on you is the same: leftover notes that are difficult or impossible to convert once you leave.

Currencies commonly affected

Restrictions change, so treat any list as a prompt to check rather than an authority. Currencies frequently subject to export limits or poor external convertibility include the Moroccan dirham, Tunisian dinar, Indian rupee, Nepalese rupee, Cuban peso, Argentine peso and a number of smaller African and Central Asian currencies. Several others are technically exportable but effectively unchangeable elsewhere — many Southeast Asian currencies fall into this group once you are outside the region.

What to do about it

• Check before the trip, not on the last day. Your own government's travel advice page for the country usually covers currency restrictions.
• Taper your withdrawals. Take out less as the trip approaches its end rather than one large final withdrawal.
• Spend it down deliberately. Fuel, a final meal, gifts, topping up a transport card.
• Change back before you go through departures, keeping the ATM receipt — some countries require proof of the original exchange to convert back.
• Do not rely on the airport. Departure-side bureaux may not buy the local currency at all, which is precisely the trap.
• Coins are almost never exchangeable anywhere. Spend them.

The related trap: pegged and dual rates

Some closed currencies also have an official rate that differs sharply from the rate anyone actually trades at. Where that is true, the number in a currency app is one of several answers, and the gap between them can be enormous. Argentina has been the best-known example. Read recent traveller reports rather than trusting a single figure — including ours.