From: J Corbally (icorb@indigo.ie)
Date: Thu Jan 03 2002 - 17:42:37 MST
Just to help clear up some of the confusion there seems to be here.
As of midnight, Jan 1st, all currency supply is in euro (in theory at least
, in practice it was pretty much the case here). All currencies are still
valid, but with one extra, the euro. This is the transition
period. Payment can be in either Euro or the old currency, but all change
is given in Euro only.
"Legacy" currencies will no longer be legal tender at the end of the
transition period, Feb 28th. Our final transition date here will be Feb 9th.
As for euro-variants, there are none. Each countrys coinage has a matching
top side, with a national emblem/symbol on the other. All euro notes I've
seen are almost identical across all countries. A Greek Euro note will be
the same when spent here as any other euro note. It's not even likely to
be noticed as a Greek minted note. All are legal tender anywhere in the
Eurozone, and are required to be accepted. All notes will pass
authentication in all validation machines (assuming it's genuine to begin
with). I've not seen any business using these machines so
far. Personally, I think the new notes are quite pretty, even if the
images are a little dull. Then again, we've always had fairly colourful
notes here.
Interestingly, Britain has had differing versions of its notes for NI,
Scotland, England... Never been an issue, with the exception of a handful
of Scottish cabbies. I hear they don't like the NI money :-)
As a matter of interest, we will be 90% converted here in Ireland by the
weekend, a full week ahead of expectations. We carry little cash here,
preferring credit cards or a trip to an ATM, so the old currency has
disappeared quickly.
I am now Euro converted, having spent my last 53 Irish pence today. Most
of my work companions were euro only by the first day. For us, the
transition has been quick and painless.
As for the currency leading to a war as someone stated here, I'm not sure
how they arrived at that conclusion, given Europe as it is
today. Countries that felt that strongly about retaining fiscal "autonomy"
remained outside the Eurozone.
Regards,
James...
>Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2002 21:47:49 +0100
>From: "Beat Weber" <extropy@iiti.ch>
>Subject: Re: first day of the euro
>scerir wrote:
> > Here we still use good old liras, with Marconi, Caravaggio,
> > and all that. People do not like euros?
> > -s.
> > Rome
> >
>Interesting.
>So the old european currencies could survive in daily life (at least for
>some time - the question is how long), if people just keep on using them and
>never bring any cash to any bank...
>/Beat
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and
crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures
to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
-Q, Star Trek:TNG episode 'Q Who'
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