The Euro

Ciao lira. Lebe wohl, Deutschmark. Adieu franc. Tot ziens lieve gulden.

Hello, Euro! (�)

How's it going over there on Day Two?

Fine, thank you... Most everybody is facing up proudly and enthusiastically to the task of getting used to the new currency. It's heartwarming to find out that some kinds of CulturalChange can be carried out, even at this large scale. -- LaurentBossavit

It would be interesting to hear how the Italians are coping with the loss of their zeros.

Oh, the zeros were more a nuisance than else. We are just doing fine. Well, apart from the journalists...

I like the design where each country gets to design their own reverse side on each coin and bill (see BelgianEuroCoin). It allows each country to keep its own cultural identity in the currency to some extent, but encountering foreign Euros allows other countries to share their own culture. Much like the US's StateQuarters?. In fact, I wish we had followed the Euro's lead and sent each state's banks its own state quarter. -- NickBensema

Only coins have a regional side - notes are the same in all the twelve Euro-countries.

The nice thing about the coins being released in their own country is that it serves a physical marker of the effects of commerce. I was in Spain during the currency switch, and at first you would look down at your change and it was all Spanish coins. Eventually coins from other countries would make their way into your pocket, and you could hold a coin with a German reverse side and note that it only got to Spain because somebody brought it there. -- FrancisHwang

Update: TheNetherlands, over a year later.

We're getting used to it, but not as good as we thought we were going to. We're still converting a lot, or at least we should be. Because of the conversion rate for the guilder, things look a lot cheaper than they actually are. For a lot of things, the euro price looks a lot like a cheap guilder price. Maybe the Belgian and the Italian people don't have these problems, because their euro prices look nothing like the prices in their old currencies. I noticed that I spend money a lot easier now because of that - not sure whether that is a GoodThing or a BadThing. I really have to tell myself to convert to see that some things aren't as cheap as they look.

I read that in France, where they apparently did something similar with the franc before, it turned out that people where still converting after 20 - 30 years. Some people never got used to it.

Here in Latvia, we switched 3 currencies in 12 years and probably will switch to Euro someday. With high inflation we had, it is impossible to compare prices. In stable countries like TheNetherlands, it's different.

On the up side, it's nice to see that TheEuro is doing so well compared to TheDollar?. I used to work in a skateshop, and we had to raise our prices all the time because of the (then) expensive dollar. Now, prices are dropping.

Yes, it is nice. Please keep sending us Euro money for skate equipment. A weak dollar helps our trade deficit.

On Dec 2nd 2003, the Euro went past $1.2! that's not good for European export! http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=EURUSD=X&t=5d -- StijnSanders

In Italy, the Euro switch has caused a surge in inflation of about +1%. In a few extreme cases, prices skyrocketed, going from 50000 ITL (~26 EUR) to 50 EUR.

In Germany, prices doubled but income is the same as before the currency switch. That isn't very nice. Now, on the 7th December 2007, the Euro is at $1.46 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro)

Euro coins: http://www.euro.ecb.int/en/section/euro0/coins.html