(Euro) Coins and nationalities

Locutus · November 2, 2003, 14:04

As the 2nd anniversary of the Euro is approaching, this seemed like an interesting idea for a thread...

I came back from a flee market today and discovered that I had ended up with quite a lot of change. While assessing the 'damage', I noticed I had quite a few different nationalities in there. (For those who've been living under a rock for the past 3 years: in (most of) the EU we've had the Euro as a common currency for the past ~2 years. The coins of the Euro have a common and a national side, where the national side looks different depending on in which country it was minted.)

I counted:

1 Spanish,
1 Irish,
1 Greek,
1 Finnish,
3 French,
3 German,
4 Belgian,
9 Dutch

coins.

Quite unusual, because before today I had never seen either Greek or Finnish coins before -- quite freakish to get both at the same time. Instead of these nationalities, I would statistically have expected Austrian and Italian coins. Also, although I'm Dutch and live in the Netherlands, I usually actually have more German than Dutch coins in my wallet: a combination of living only a few kilometers from the German border and simple statistics (there are far more German coins in circulation than Dutch ones).

So, for those of you living in the Eurozone, how many nationalities of Euro coins do you have in your wallet right now? (The 13+ option is for the unlikely case that you have coins from Vatican City/Monaco/etc as well as from all 12 official Eurozone members).

For those living outside the Eurozone (inside or outside the EU), how many different currencies do you carry around at the moment? (E.g. pounds, Euros, dollars, pesos, etc)

Also, does anyone know if/when the new EU members will get their own coins and if there's anything known on what they will look like?

Gangerolf · November 2, 2003, 14:08

"Also, although I'm Dutch and live in the Netherlands, I usually actually have more German than Dutch coins in my wallet"

doesn't that piss you off?

germanos · November 2, 2003, 14:14

12 Dutch
3 German
2 Spanish
1 french
1 Italian

Locutus · November 2, 2003, 14:14

Not really, it makes me feel like a true European

Especially if you mix in the other currencies: of the 12 different nationalities, I see 8 of them quite often (only Portuguese, Luxemburgian (is that the right word?), Greek and Finnish are (very) rare).

Hurricane · November 2, 2003, 14:20

The reason Finnish coins are rare is because we keep all of them.

All my coins are Finnish except for one single Spanish 1-euro coin.

Gangerolf · November 2, 2003, 14:21

OK. I figured you maybe felt "overrun" by the Germans.

But if you regularily see 8 different nationalities I guess that's not the case.

Gangerolf · November 2, 2003, 14:23

I don't live in Euroland but I've got some euros lying around somewhere. Let's see..

4 Spanish
2 German
1 Irish
1 Unknown (a €1 with flying geese on it)

FrustratedPoet · November 2, 2003, 14:24

I have some English money and some Slovenian money at the moment.

Locutus · November 2, 2003, 14:26

I guess some others here in the Netherlands might feel that way, especially since we've had some nasty experiences with German invasions in the past

But I for one am cool with it: it's just a stupid picture (and the German coins look much cooler than the Dutch ones anyway, though the Italian coins are my favourite)...

Locutus · November 2, 2003, 14:27

Quote:

Originally posted by Gangerolf
1 Unknown (a €1 with flying geese on it)

Is it Finnish by any chance?

http://www.euro.ecb.int/en/section/e...pecific.FI.htm

Gangerolf · November 2, 2003, 14:33

Yes

. And they appear to be swans, not geese

They're all leftovers from a trip to Spain, btw. Most of the coins I saw there were Spanish IIRC, but I saved some of the interesting looking ones

Bereta_Eder · November 2, 2003, 14:41

let's see I currently have 2 2euro coins - greek
1 euro coin - greek
10cents eurocoin-greek

doh!

Gangerolf · November 2, 2003, 14:44

He he the Belgian coins suck. (No offense ment to Belgium. It's a great country)
http://www.euro.ecb.int/en/section/e...ecific.BE.html

I like the Italian coins. At least they don't have the same picture on every coin.
http://www.euro.ecb.int/en/section/e...ecific.IT.html

Kuciwalker · November 2, 2003, 14:55

What about zero - I don't carry any euros anyway?

Bereta_Eder · November 2, 2003, 14:56

You can choose bananas! (about the same value as your little money

)

Bereta_Eder · November 2, 2003, 15:00

BTW have you ever gotten a fake banknote?
I once got a fake 5 euro, it was discovered at a shop, then I simply passed it on to someone who didn't have a detector. or rather i knew he wouldnt use it.

Gangerolf · November 2, 2003, 15:00

that's one hell of an expensive banana

Drogue · November 2, 2003, 15:50

I put one, because I only carry around pounds. However I have a few USD and Euros downstairs. Never needed anything else.

Snotty · November 2, 2003, 15:59

Does anyone know about the dynamics of euro circulation? I guess that holiday destinations would have a much greater mix of different countrys coins, as holiday makers would bring their coins from their home country. Except for holidays, what other reasons can coins have for crossing the border?

I also only carry pounds, and feel rather left out of all this interesting euro business.

Gangerolf · November 2, 2003, 16:03

Euro suggestions for Denmark, Sweden, UK: http://www.eurocoins.co.uk/
Malta: http://www.kelb-tal-fenek.com/stampandcoin.htm (the maltese suggestion seems very unofficial though)

Maniac · November 2, 2003, 16:08

25 Belgian (I urgently need to get rid of all my small exchange...

)
4 French
1 German
1 Luxemburg

Oddly enough I rarely see Dutch coins.

MichaeltheGreat · November 2, 2003, 16:09

I almost always have both dollars and pesos. Everybody down here takes dollars, but the informal exchange rates are sometimes better and sometimes worse than the market rate.

Bereta_Eder · November 2, 2003, 16:09

Well during summer there were lots of other eurocoins from the other member states. But then they kind of became more rare.
I remember the first time I saw a foreign euro but can't place the country right now... But if memory serves correctly it was holland?

The Emperor Fabulous · November 2, 2003, 16:30

I have a huge amount of foreign coins...but I don't have them at school...I know I had some turkish, some pesos, some italian, etc...but no euros

cinch · November 2, 2003, 16:33

I carry mainly Canadian (fancifully coloured, I might add) dollars, but some Yankeebucks always find their way into my wallet. It's mostly small change; quarters to pennies... And it makes no difference really, everybody just treats them the same here.

But once you get into American paper money, the exchange rate becomes more important, and only certain stores will accept it (as they have to work out the daily calculations themselves).

But yeah, every once in a while, I'll find a Lincoln-penny in my pocket, and I'll have to melt it at my ceremonial "Hate America" altar.

Rogan Josh · November 2, 2003, 17:15

oops - I voted wrong. I thought you meant 'How many different currencies do you have in your wallet right now?' to which I anserwed '4' -- US Dollars, Euros, UK Pounds and Swiss Francs.

Immortal Wombat · November 2, 2003, 17:28

All my Euro coins are Spanish I think, maybe some french ones. Not that I can use them of course.

OzzyKP · November 2, 2003, 17:49

No Euros in my wallet. What would be the point?

But I've got just about the whole collection of French and German Euros, and a handful of Euros from Spain and Italy.

See my other threads for a more complete monitary rundown.

Flandrien · November 2, 2003, 18:08

At this moment I only have Belgian and Dutch in my wallet.
But I voted for three because I usually also have French and german coins. Just not this time.

My collection has almost all coins, except for Portugal.

Starchild · November 2, 2003, 18:57

Only pound sterling right now but I've been given (and in turn gave out) euro change before. Mostly €0.02 coin because they are nearly the same size as the £0.01 coin. Once, amazingly, had someone hand me a euro coin instead of a pound coin despite the fact that they look and feel nothing alike.

Euro creep begins.