Aidan Work

You can find some information about the cut-off times for cashing in the pre-Euro coins & notes from the various Euro-Zone countries here; www.ecb.int .

Aidan.

chrisild

The redemption period for pre-euro coins has already ended in Belgium, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Portugal. Non-euro coins from those countries are "worthless" ... except for collectors :-) The next dates are:

(YYYY-MM-DD: End of redemption period)
2006-12-31: NL / Coins
2012-02-17: FR / Notes
2012-02-29: FI / Notes
2012-02-29: FI / Coins
2012-03-01: GR / Notes
2012-03-01: IT / Notes
2012-03-01: IT / Coins
2022-12-31: PT / Notes
2032-01-01: NL / Notes

Unlimited redemption periods:
– AT / Notes and Coins
– BE / Notes only
– DE / Notes and Coins
– ES / Notes and Coins
– IE / Notes and Coins
– LU / Notes only

Note, however, that these redemption periods apply only to those coins and notes that were in circulation until the cash changeover. Different dates may apply to older coins and notes.

Christian

KLJ

I had heard that the Germans had an unlimited redemption period. I understood that to mean that the Germans (the government, public, unions, business, etc.) weren't so enamored of the Euro as other countries, and that providing for unlimited redemption was a way to, should the Euro fail - which I believe it will - make "re-monetizing" the Mark easier.

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Soli Deo Gloria!

JBK

WOW!!!!! Those are fighting words in Europe. Actually, I agree. I don’t see how so many diverse countries can use a common currency. They keep trying to say it is no different than the US with it’s 50 states, but I do not quite agree.

In any case, I did not hear that the Germans had any ulterior motive, but who knows. I do know that U was getting crisp unc. 10 mark notes (older series, no less) in Dec. ’01, just a couple weeks before the Euro came in.

For what it is worth, in many countries, some stores still give the legacy currency price on receipts along with the rice.

chrisild

As for the future of the euro, we will see. I am fairly sure that a European Union which keeps enlarging without really becoming more closely integrated will not work in the long run. And that would of course affect the euro as well. Then again, certain member states are quite likely to oppose such further integration as they have done in the past. I am not particularly fond of the "core EU" concept, but maybe there is no other way.

But your assumption regarding the reasons for the unlimited redemption is strange, to put it mildly :-) The actual reason is quite simple: No coin or note issued in the Federal Republic has ever become demonetized. Cash that loses its legal tender status is taken out of circulation, but you could and can always take, say, an old silver 5 mark coin (legal tender until 1975) to the central bank. Before 2002, you would get 5 DEM for it, now you get 2.56 EUR for it.

By the way, the old cash is pretty gone anyway. 95 percent of the DEM notes have been exchanged so far (Jan-2005). Coins are not returned that often and much, maybe because people think it is not worth the effort, maybe because they ended up in collectors albums :-) So roughly 8 billion DEM in notes and 7 billion in coins are still around. Sounds impressive but is not actually much compared to the cash in circulation. And whatever ends up at the Bundesbank goes to the shredder or the scrap metal industry ...

Christian

satootoko

Of course that includes not only the notes and coins in collector/dealer hands, but all those that were accidentally destroyed over the years - an inherently indeterminable portion.

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Roy

JBK

I guess this says what I tried to say. Europe will never be like the USA until all Europenas consider themselves European first, and then German, Italian, Slovakian, etc. second. I am not sure this is ever going to happen.

True of course about old DM notes and coins. They are not stockpiling them.

I still have "forever", I guess, to decide if I want to keep my crisp new 100 DM note and my 500 Austrian schillings. I am tempted to keep them, especially the mark note, since I loved spending those big blue Clara Shumans.

chrisild

Don't know either. But then again, I do not want the EU to be like the US anyway. Close cooperation, yes, further integration, yes. But ultimately a member state should still have the option to leave.

As for feeling European, well, I do. Sure many things are still different between, say, Northern Finland and Southern Portugal, and I do like that diversity. On the other hand, I live in North Rhine Westphalia, close to Belgium and the Netherlands, and I appreciate the fact that in many regards the old borders are gone. The common currency is just one aspect of that integration, but a fairly tangible one.

The marks, yes. The Bundesbank is reducing the number of its branch offices, so one day you may have to travel relatively far to get it changed (or send it in via mail), but there is no time limit.

Basically the same applies to Austria, but in case your schilling note is an older one, watch out. In Austria, the unlimited exchange only applies to the last series of notes - see the first part ("Banknoten mit zeitlich unbegrenztem Umtausch") of this page:
http://www.oenb.at/de/rund_ums_geld/...otentausch.jsp

If you have an older note, the time to have it exchanged may be limited. See the second section ("Banknoten mit zeitlich begrenztem Umtausch") for dates.

Christian

Pinchas BarZeev

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NOTES:

For older notes of France, The Netherlands and Austria I saw complete redemption lists with pics or links to pics, albeit in the local languages, but cutoff dates are clearly visible.

France
http://www.banque-france.fr/fr/insti...anc/page1b.htm
Go to last table.

Netherlands
http://www.dnb.nl/dnb/pagina.jsp?cid=tcm:12-40190

Austria http://www.oenb.at/de/rund_ums_geld/...sp#tcm:14-3120
Look at those weird dates, mid-year almost every year...

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Pinchas Bar-Zeev

Aidan Work

I can guess that a lot of collectors will be after the old Irish Pound notes.I was lucky to get a 5 Pounds
& a 10 Pounds,which turned up out of the blue.No way would I ever send these to the Central Bank of Ireland for cashing in.

Aidan.

goldman

edited.. money is money it does'nt matter whether all the parts of europe like each other or not.the euro is just a currency a way to trade goods. ones the period of getting adjusted to different inflation's rates sets in all will be fine. becoming part of the european union does'nt mean u have to join the euro (england still has the pound). thirdly people r thick. at the start u will always have the old patriots crying nationalism etc. but after a few years people just get used to the idea of a unified currency. 10 years fom now people will wonder how europeans lived without a unified currency

chrisild

Apart from a few euro collectors maybe, hardly anybody in the Continental EU expects the UK to join Euroland. Whether the country keeps the pound or not, well, I don't really care. What I find important, from both a political and a pretty selfish POV :-) is that the countries around here (Benelux, France, Germany ...) have the same currency.

As far as the currency union is concerned, the UK - and Denmark - could opt out because they joined the EC before the decision about introducing the euro was made. Member states that joined the EU "after Maastricht" do not have that option. Well, in theory, that is ;-)

Christian

goldman

i am not sur how accurate u r as to whether all new members have to adopt the euro as my studies about turkey did'nt come across any reference to becoming part of the euro on compulsion (i am sure they want to though) .
leaving aside who is or is'nt part of the euro my main piont was to rebuttle people who use the disunity of europe to claim that the euro wont survive. individual european nations do consider themself to be seperate but at the same time they do consider them self to have the same values etc.. mainly people except what their leaders want them to...

chrisild

Don't know how the euro will develop, but I know that a new member state cannot simply pick the parts of the Treaties that it likes, and ignore other parts :-) Sorry if the following is a little abstract ...

When the European Union was founded (Maastricht Treaty, effective since 1993), it included the aim of a monetary union; see Art. 2 of the EC Treaty and the Preamble of the EU Treaty. However, at that time Denmark and the UK - countries that did and do not plan to introduce the European currency - were already members of the Communities. Legally any existing member state could have said No to the entire Maastricht Treaty (which would then have been "dead"). To prevent that, a deal was made; the two agreed to the treaty but could opt out of the currency union.

However, any country that has joined the EU since then is, theoretically, obliged to introduce the euro, provided the member state in question meets the euro convergence criteria.
http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l25066.htm

Now the Swedish example showed that, if a member state opposes joining the currency union, there are ways of "voluntarily" not meeting these criteria. It can simply decide to not join the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-II) for example :-)

Christian

KLJ

I read an article (I think it was in Britain's Telegraph) recently that told of a poll in France that suggested the "no" vote in France on the European Constitution held a slim majority. Now I realize one poll does not an election make, and that legally, all a defeat of the Constitution would do is send the negotiators back to the bargaining table without changing any existing situations, but ...

To our European members out there (or those who follow European politics closely), is there any truth to this, and what do you think will happen if there is and it comes to pass?

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Soli Deo Gloria!