All currency dealers are "black market" [1] -- the only difference is that in some countries, there's a "white market" that bears no resemblance to reality. Co

All currency dealers are "black market" [1] -- the only difference is that in some countries, there's a "white market" that bears no resemblance to reality. Come to think of it, that's true of all "black markets". The only thing that makes a market "black" is the existence of some ridiculous official alternative. [1] For example: when I land in Japan, I don't get Yen from the JCB -- I get it from a private entity who sells it to me for dollars, usually at a worse than officially stated exchange rate. The Travelex booth at the airport is literally a private market for cash. When I swipe my credit card in a foreign country, the intermediary banks are more than happy to sell me currency, on the spot, for a small fee.