Ah, those I use every day. There are eight coin denominations - yours plus the 1 cent, 2 cent and 2 euro. The "mid-range" pieces (golden/brass color) and the bimetallic pieces have a map of the "old" EU (if you have older ones) or a map of Europe (on the newer ones). The other sides are country specific, e.g. the obverse of a Dutch coin is different from a Spanish coin etc. If you don't know where a coin is from, you can look them up here http://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/coins/html/index.en.html for example. Just click on a denomination (on the left) to see the corresponding coins. Images of the notes are here http://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/html/index.en.html - and note that you can tell from the short code (on the obverse) where a note was printed. The serial number (on the reverse) tells you which national bank issued the note. Christian
A few questions for Christian or anyone else willing to address them: How do you feel the three highest denomination coins are working out in day to day use? The US has repeatedly failed to get citizens to use $1 coins. The obvious difference is that there is no paper one Euro so people have to use the coins or skip the denomination. In the US this has happened to the half dollar coin. The US has not made half dollars for regular circulation for several years due to lack of demand. When you buy something in the US, your change will include quarters but rarely a half. Do you, or anyone you know, feel inconvenienced with the smallest bill being the five? Do you use both the one and two with regularity? Another feature the Euro notes have that I find interesting is the different sizes for each denomination. Obviously the feature makes bleaching low denominations to print larger ones less a problem but does the the size difference make a pile different bills hard to handle? Does this change when the bills get old and worn? Is it a feature well liked by most people? Do citizens of most countries accept Euros of other all other countries equally with their own or are there people who make a point of spending things from countries they don't particularly like first? In the US we now have quarters with reverses showing each of the 50 states and a few territories but everyone I know thinks of all as US coins. You are no more likely to see a Virginia quarter in Virginia than in any other state. If you take 100 random euros out of circulation in your country will most be from your country or will they be a random mix or other nations?
Just fine, as in most countries that have similar pieces (Canada, Switzerland, UK). The €1 and €2 are used normally in every euro country. Guess that in some countries people had to get used to them first (if the highest denomination in the previous currency had a considerably lower value) but now that not an issue any more. It may become one in Estonia in six months; the country will introduce the euro on 1 January, and currently the highest denomination coin in circulation is the 1 kroon piece (~6 cent). €1 is about 15 krooni, 2 euro is 31 krooni. But I am pretty sure they will quickly get used to the idea that coins can actually have some value. Two euro countries have by and large phased the 1 and 2 cent coins out; cash totals are rounded to x.y0 or x.y5 in Finland and the Netherlands. You may still use those small pieces, but they are not actually needed. Wish we would do that here in Germany too ... When I went to the US for the first time, I was totally surprised that every note, every denomination, had the very same size. Guess you won't find many countries that do that. Having different colors and different sizes makes paper money much easier to handle in my opinion. What I think is a little exaggerated is that the euro notes "grow" in terms of both height and width. (OK, the height of the "upper three" - €100, €200, €500 - is the same. But the 200s and 500s you hardly ever see in everyday life anyway.) Having different widths only would have been sufficient. Those eight denominations are legal tender in the entire euro area, no matter which country issued the coins. (There are also "collector coins", usually silver and gold pieces, which are legal tender in the issuing member state only - but those do not actually circulate.) And the notes all have the same look anyway. When the "Greece crisis" began, a few people would say (when given a note issued by the Greek central bank), please give me notes from elsewhere instead. Guess they did not really understand how a currency union works. Christian
Thanks. I would so love to see the US eliminate the 1 and 5 cent coins which cost more than face value to mint but it is unrealistic to expect a government to admit that their money isn't worth enough to cover copper melt. A President that did that would be blamed for the money being worthless rather than for fixing what has been happening for decades. The US is addicted to prices like $2.98 and sales tax charts that perpetuate needing one cent coins. Change takes generations.
Nice! Might I ask where she picked them up? I'm in OKC and am always looking for more places to buy coins lol.
I like the euro, the Australians do it similarly. I amassed a nice little smattering of euros, and Aussie coins from a trip to Spain and a semester in Australia. I got used to the Australian monetary system, and $1 and $2 coins are extremely popular there and very easy to use. Their lowest bill is the $5 and taxes are built into prices in most cases, so people round up to avoid that $10.99 no 1 cent either.
i got some euros i like them a lot. my girls dad brought them over from england when he moved here. there was around $20(usa) that were in bad shape that i cashed in to a coin shop, right before they dropped a few months ago. i will keep the nice ones and with the few world coins i have, they are great for my collection. now i want some of the plastic Australian money!
