Eurozone 10th Anniversary Coin Circulation Survey

Despite all of the problems that are now afflicting the Eurozone, the common currency remains the 'Coin of the Realm' for much of western and parts of central, eastern and northern Europe. One of its aspects that has intrigued me from the very beginning is that its coins bear designs of the individual countries that issued them and that they then mix freely in circulation.

With Euro coins and banknotes now being in use for ten years, for those CoinTalkers who are living in the Eurozone, what kinds of national coin design mix proportions are you now seeing in normal daily commerce in your local areas (include at least the city or local region where you live)?

Thanx!

Mike

 

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How well they mix depends on where you are (surprise ). In a rural country town far away from the next euro country, and with hardly any visitors, it will be more difficult to come across coins from other euro countries. In the city where I live, there are "factors" such as trade shows, hotels and an airport, plus Belgium and the Netherlands are not far away. So it is nothing extraordinary to come across "non-German" coins.

Now if I lived in Belgium or Luxembourg for example, the share of "foreigners" in my wallet would be even higher. We do not have border checks here, so it is easy and pretty normal to go back and forth. So most people around here will regularly use Belgian, Dutch, French and/or German pieces. Then there is the issue of relatively small countries, especially when they are far away. How often do I get coins from Finland, Cyprus or Malta? Weeeellll ...

But I also think that most people don't really care. Each circulation coin has one common side and one country specific side (in that regard they are similar to the US state quarters), and if a coin says "50 cent" on one side, and looks and feels like a 50 cent coin, many non-collectors will not even bother checking the other side.

This http://www.eurodiffusie.nl/results/monthly/NL is a website* that shows you how "well mixed" or not the coins are. The results are based on what the members (they have about 200 to 300 "regulars", mostly Dutch and Belgians) enter. For euro notes there is http://www.eurobilltracker.com/diffusion/ but that is rather a Where's George type tracking site. Also, due to the pooling system, not every national central bank makes every denomination ...

* That is the latest statistics for the Netherlands; try "Andere landen" for what was found in other countries, and "Andere maandelijkse metingen" for other monthly results.

Christian

 

Very interesting question and conversation. Thank you. -L

 

Today I got a roll of these (see image below) at the bank. While the euro was "born" in January 1999, the coins did not become legal tender until January 2002. So this piece commemorates ten years of euro cash. OK, that is not my photo, and the pieces that I picked up are from Karlsruhe ("G" mintmark), not "A" ...

The design, by Helmut Andexlinger from Austria, was the winner in a public (web) vote last year. All 17 euro area member states have issued or will issue this - same design except for the country name. And again it will be fairly easy, I think, to get the Dutch, German or French piece. But the coins from Cyprus, Luxembourg or Malta for example will be hard for me to get at face.

Christian

 

And here is a photo of my very own personal roll, hehe. Have not opened it yet ...

Christian

 

I visit the Netherlands, Germany and Austria fairly frequently so of course those are the coins I see the most of. But I have gotten Slovenian coins, a Cypriot Euro etc. I see lesser amounts of French, Spanish and Italians. So far I have yet to see a single Finnish coin.

 

Here in Finland and in my wallet most common "foreign" euros are:

1. Germany (weekly)
2. Spain (weekly)
3. France (a time or few in month)
4. Greece / Estonia (one time or few in month)
5. The Netherlands (one time or few in month)
6. Belgium / Austria (one time or few in month)
7. Italy / Portugal (one time in couple of months)
8. Cyprus / Slovenia / Slovakia / Ireland (rarely)

From others I haven´t seen here any yet (as I remember). I use coins and notes usually in grocery stores and in cafes few times a week, so I´m not counted as " a heavy user". If I look 2 euro commems, I see German ones maybe time or two in period of one year. And sometimes somebody try to give me Thailand 10 baht coin as 2 euro

For my luck, I have a friend working as tourist guide in various cities in southern Europe - she brings me new commems from other countries (mainly circ) regurarly. It is always nice to put some duplicate "harder to get" euros back to circulation and look what the cashier will say about them.

 

Portugal:

Over 90% of 1/2 cents coins are always Portuguese.

Other denominations:

Winter:
Majority Portuguese, 20% Spanish, a lot of French, German, Italian and Belgian coins, other countries just on occasion...


Summer:
Majority Spanish, 20% Portuguese, also a lot of French, German, Italian and Belgian coins, moderate quantities of Irish, Austrian, Dutch and Luxembourger coins appear, other countries... sometimes.


Jose

 

If Britain had Euros, the whole circulation patterns in Spain and Portugal would change dramatically.

 

Eeek. But I'll try and not get political here. :devil:

By the way, most euro countries (AT, DE, EE, ES FI, FR, GR, IE, SI, SK) have in the meantime issued these coins. A few others (BE, CY, IT, LU, MT, NL, PT) will come later this year. I don't have many yet ...

Christian

 

As Jose mentioned those 1c and 2c coins - do people really like to use them or just throw them to jars etc. places? As you may know, we don't use them at all and I haven't ever heard that anyone would even seek them here.

 

Depends. Here in Germany they are used like all the other denominations; quite annoying in my opinion. Half an hour away from here, in the Netherlands, most stores apply the same rounding rules that you have in Finland.

The only reason why I like the low denomination coins is the "groove" that the edge of the 2 cent coin has. Cool feature. Apart from that, I'd love to see the 1 and 2 ct pieces go.

Christian

 

Yes, definitely, the Algarve and southern Spain are like "British Florida"... :devil:

And i know you're right because there is a huge surge in the circulation of "T" (Irish) banknotes in the Summer.

Jose

 

There's a use for them, although not used everywhere: supermarkets, post office (Domestic mail and utility bills), drugstores, bakeries...
They don't accumulate at all, always use them 2/3 times a week.

Jose

 

and thank god we don't...................

 

france loses triple a rating............................bye bye euro.

 

They think it's all over ......... it is now!

 

Bye-bye just because some Poor and Moody Raters in the US say so? I doubt it. But it is interesting how some here try and turn a topic about the use of coins into a political debate.

For some reason, in pretty much every other non-euro country in the EU the question about the common currency is by and large a non-issue; in Denmark or Sweden for example they would not want it either, but the discussion (if there is one at all) is much different from what you hear from England for example.

Christian

 

don't be so touchy christian, it's just that the euro is in deep trouble and looks very unlikely to survive in it's present form, oh and by the way, liverpool isn't in the usa

 

As I wrote, most British seem to have a different attitude towards the euro and the European Union as a whole - different from the overall attitude in pretty much every other non-euro EU country as far as I can tell. Not that the Swedes, for example, plan to join the currency union, heck no. But since there are no such plans, it is not really an issue there. However, when you talk to British (well, at least English) about the euro ...

I don't even start euro coin topics here on CT any more because I know what they tend to turn into here. Well, I should have known better with regard to replying to this one as well. My fault. Oh, and the "poor and moody raters" refers to agencies which AFAIK are not located in Liverpool.

Christian