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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;hontonai, post: 702493, member: 4703&quot;]Those &quot;alls&quot; are a little bit of an overstatement.</p><p><br /></p><p>On January 1, 2002, the Euro began circulating in only 11 countries.&nbsp; Greece, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus and Slovakia, all converted in subsequent years.&nbsp; (Other European countries are even now contemplating, or planning, conversion.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Paper currency (€5, €10, €20, €50, €100 and the rarely used €200 and&nbsp; €500 denominations) is uniform throughout Euroland, but coins (1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent, and €1)are minted by the member countries.</p><p><br /></p><p>Except when issuing commemoratives of €2 or higher denomination (which must have designs approved by the European Commission) all countries must mate an identical &quot;common side&quot; with the &quot;national side&quot; designed by the issuing country.&nbsp; Some use separate designs for each denomination, and others combine designs for multiple denominations.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s something Clinker might want to expand upon in one of his trivia posts:<blockquote><p>Although there are only 16 member nations authorized to issue coins at the present time, there are 19 varieties to be collected.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Under agreements with member countries to use a small part of their allotted mintage limit, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City also produce Euro coins.&nbsp; Monaco uses French authorization and the other two use Italian.&nbsp; (Before the Euro came along, Monaco&#039;s currency was tied to the French franc, and the San Marino/Vatican currencies were tied to the Italian lira.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Another bit of trivia:&nbsp; The Euro officially circulates in both North and South America, as well as the Indian Ocean and Caribbean Sea. (Look up Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, off the Canadian coast, French Guyana between Brazil and Suriname, and the off-shore Departments of France.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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