In about a week, on 1 January 2009, Slovakia will introduce the euro. The old Slovak koruna (SKK) cash can be used until mid-January. The new coins have been available since 1 December - people could "buy" euro and cent coins at face value in little plastic bags like those that the other euro countries issued before. Each of those 1.2 million Slovakian "starter kits" contains euro cash worth 500 SKK. The changeover rate is 1 EUR = 30.1260 SKK, see http://www.euromena.sk/ About 500 million coins, with a total value of about €400m, have been produced so far at the country's mint. The Kremnica mint is one of the oldest operating mints in the world; production of the euros began in August 2008. The "copper" coins (1, 2, 5 cent) depict Mount Krivan; the Nordic Gold pieces (10, 20, 50 cent) show the castle in the capital Bratislava; and the country's CoA (a double cross above three mountains) is on the €1 and €2 coins. See http://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/coins/html/sk.en.html The notes have the same designs across the entire euro area, and the initial supply for Slovakia has been "imported" from neighboring Austria - the two central banks in Vienna (OeNB) and Bratislava (NBS) are less than 70 kilometers apart. The 190 million notes have a total face value of about €7bn. Later the NBS will commission part of the paper money issued, like all other central bank in the euro area. Between 1 and 16 January both euro and korun cash can be used. After that, commercial banks will exchange SKK coins (until the end of June) and notes (until the end of December) into EUR cash free of charge. Also, the branch offices of the central banks in the other euro countries will exchange SKK cash (notes only) into euro cash until the end of February. As usual there is no charge for this service but a limit of €1,000 per customer and day. Another option, if you need to have korun notes or coins changed into euro cash, is the central bank in Slovakia. With coins the NBS will do that until the end of 2013; the redemption period for notes is not limited. Slovakia will also participate in the common commemorative €2 issue "Ten Years EMU/Euro" which will come out in early January. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:315:0008:0011:EN:PDF (see page 4) Christian
It's there. "As of today, Slovakia has switched over to the euro as legal tender. (...) Slovakia became a member of the European Union in 2004 and is the sixteenth country to use the euro. (...) Today is the tenth anniversary of the official introduction of the euro as a monetary unit. (...)" http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/6117951/Slovakia-joins-eurozone And De Orc already has the coins. :bigeyes: http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t35562-4/#post490062 Happy New Year everybody! Christian
