From: Christian Weisgerber (naddy@mips.inka.de)
Date: Sun Jul 21 2002 - 16:29:04 MDT
Amara Graps <amara@amara.com> wrote:
> So to find out more about their continent, thousands of Europeans are
> digging through their pockets and keeping track of their coins,
Let's see... *dumps wallet*
2.00 2 German
1.00 0
0.50 1 German
0.20 0
0.10 1 German
0.05 3 German, 2 French
0.02 3 German, 3 French, 1 Spanish
0.01 2 German, 1 French
This is not representative, though, since I recently spent a few
days in Bordeaux.
> Or does the relationship between each country depend on a complex set of
> equations between each country that considers the distance between the
> countries and the number of commuters, travelers and bank trucks going
> back and forth?
Living fairly close to the Alsace, I expected French coins to quickly
become a common sight around here but they remain quite rare. On
the other hand, Spanish coins seemed to be fairly common in Bordeaux.
Coins travel in mysterious ways. In pre-Euro Germany, they drained
from the North to the South, from where the Federal Bank trucked
them back north.
> "I have the distinct impression that a real mania has broken out
> among coin collectors," Dr. Stoyan said, which would take rare
> coins disproportionately more often out of circulation.
I assume there are many people who just casually collect Euro coins
out of circulation like my Dad does. He doesn't care for mint
quality or anything seriously collectible, he just likes to have
one of each. In the initial weeks of the year he redirected some
of my parents' Sunday excursions to the Alsace and to Luxembourg
to pick up coins there, and I brought him a Belgian set when I went
to FOSDEM in Brussels. By now he has also nabbed the odd Dutch,
Austrian, Spanish, Italian, and Greek coin. Portuguese, Irish, and
Finnish ones have remained elusive so far.
Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican basically sold their coins
straight to collectors. You are unlikely to ever encounter one in
circulation.
> (All of the euro notes look the same.)
Most people seem to be unaware of this, but you can readily tell
the country of original issue from the first letter of the serial
number. There is also a code that reveals the print shop, which
by the way doesn't necessarily have to be in the issuing country.
Any yes, the bills are getting around, too.
-- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de
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