Time for new change

By SIMON CALDER

Constancy. That is what January 1 will mean for the people of a dozen European countries. In the wake of the mightiest monetary transformation in history, the cash they and tourists spend will stay constant from Athens to Athlone.

The cash confusion that surrounds the business of pleasure in Europe, and occasionally traps unwary travellers, has only days to go.

Starting on New Year's Day, 12 national currencies - including two kinds of mark and three varieties of franc - will be consigned to the small change of history.

The easy way to remember the participating nations is the acronym Baffling Pigs: Belgium, Austria, France, Finland, Luxembourg, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain.

Each has set its own handover period, during which shoppers can spend national currencies but receive change in euros.

The Germans say the deutschmark will cease to be legal tender at midnight on December 31. This is just a tad unrealistic, so shops are planning to accept the old currency until the end of February.

Disarray is evident in the other dates: Dutch guilders bow out four weeks into the New Year, Irish punts six, French francs seven. Most of the rest will survive until the end of February.

After then, you will have to change "legacy" currencies at banks or bureaux de change, and by the end of next year usually only the central bank of each nation will oblige.

If you are a traveller who keeps foreign money from one year to the next, there is a decision to be made.

Do nothing with it, or save it as a memento for the grandchildren, and you effectively donate it to the issuing nation.

But if you are lucky enough to be travelling in Europe over the coming weeks, now is the time to dig out those old coins spend them.

- INDEPENDENT

The Euro