Such exchanges, both official and unofficial, were integral in establishing early Japanese Buddhist sculpture.

Its official foreign exchange reserves total $73 billion, a level exceeded only by Japan.

In 1948 Cohen advised both the United States and the new state of Israel with respect to the first official exchange between those two countries.

A man offers to change money for you at a rate higher than the official exchange rate of around 2.6 to the dollar.

The program had the flavor of an official cultural exchange.

The incident led to the suspension of all official exchange between the two cities of Nagoya and Nanjing on 21 February.

The transfer of the Expedition 4 seat-liners to the Soyuz return vehicle attached to the station marked the official exchange of crews.

That was equivalent to a lawyer or doctor's salary, but only about $830 a month on the official exchange, and less in reality.

Recently, the official exchange has been about $1.58 a ruble.

Beyond that, trading has also increased outside official exchanges, including swaps or over-the-counter trades conducted directly between, say, a bank and an airline.