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<sect1 id="zend.currency.introduction">
    <title>Introduction to Zend_Currency</title>

    <para>
        <classname>Zend_Currency</classname> is part of the strong support for I18n in Zend
        Framework. It handles all issues related to currency, money representation, formatting,
        exchange services and calculation.
    </para>

    <sect2 id="zend.currency.introduction.list">
        <title>Why should you use Zend_Currency?</title>

        <para>
            <classname>Zend_Currency</classname> offers you the following benefit:
        </para>

        <itemizedlist mark='opencircle'>
            <listitem>
                <para>
                    <emphasis>Complete Locale support</emphasis>
                </para>

                <para>
                    This component works with all available locales and therefore knows about more
                    than 100 different localized currencies. This includes informations like
                    currency names, abbreviations, money signs and much more.
                </para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
                <para>
                    <emphasis>Reusable Currency Definitions</emphasis>
                </para>

                <para>
                    <classname>Zend_Currency</classname> has the advantage that already defined
                    currency representations can be reused. You could also have 2 different
                    representations for the same currency.
                </para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
                <para>
                    <emphasis>Currency calculation</emphasis>
                </para>

                <para>
                    <classname>Zend_Currency</classname> allows you also to calculate with currency
                    values. Therefore, it provides you an interface to exchange services.
                </para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem>
                <para>
                    <emphasis>Additional Methods</emphasis>
                </para>

                <para>
                    <classname>Zend_Currency</classname> includes several additional methods that
                    offer detailed informations about currencies like which currency is used
                    within a defined region and what are the known abbreviations of a currency.
                </para>
            </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>
    </sect2>
</sect1>
