E-Day

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Today is a historic one for much of my continent as 300 million of us, from Greece to Ireland, Portugal to Finland, grapple with these crisp new notes, and wave farewell to Guilders, Lire, Francs, Deutschmarks etc.

I picked up my first €10 and €50 notes this morning. Despite their dull designs, with symbolic images of non-existence bridges, I found handling these notes for the first time quite moving.

Predictably the euro-sceptic British press works itself into a lather this morning e.g. The Sun 'this loopy lottery'. Fellow Murdoch rag The Times labels it (not without justification) 'an unprecedented political and economic experiment’ but has the grace to acknowledge ‘in political terms, however, the mere creation of the euro is a triumph for those who support closer European integration.’

Any early reactions from inside or outside the €uro zone?

― stevo, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I am afraid to go outside and bump into Euros.

― helenfordsdale, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I have nothing to say about it ( Being stuck with the loonies & twonies... lol

― Gale Deslongchamps, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The scale of my indifference = Himalayan

― mark s, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Me- 'The designs are a bit lacklustre don't you think, all those fake bridges and arches'.
Friend- 'Yeah, they ought to have images of the men responsible for pushing Europe towards greater unity'.
Me- 'You mean Robert Schumann and Jean Monnet'
Friend - 'No, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin'.

― stevo, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I had to give change to a few people today. Japanese clients were excited till they had to work it out. "Muzukashii desu neeeee!" Difficult? It's @ss. British customer refused Euro so had to give change in Franks. hah!

― helenfordsdale, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

you should have rubbed yr oily food in his hair, clocked him with yr string of onions, made sophisticated love to his wife and then choked him with your beret/clogs/tulips/ lederhosen/turkish delight

hah!!

― mark s, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

what's a true blue brit doing in a belgian lace shop anyway? what's wrong with gannex, i'd like to know!!

― mark s, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Tainted by association with Harold Wilson perhaps? Gua rdian: New coins sweet for Keira

― stevo, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Here I was thinking this thread would be full of people waving glowsticks and hugging each other and asking for water while listening to Ultrasoniks greatest hits.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

the euro makes me really sad. they may be good economically but local currencies are beautiful.

― Maria, Tuesday, 1 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I liked the scare story in The Observer of all places which suggested that due to the nickel in the Euro coins one in seven will get an allergic reaction and turn into scaly lizard people (or as it less imaginatively put it, may suffer a mild form of exzcema).

― Pete, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

What if scaly lizard people are allergic to nickel? What then?

― Alan Trewartha, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

To be fair Pete they didn't play down the lizard man story since they said that one in seven Europeans could find their hands transformed into a "scaly mass".

I was neutral on the Euro until I played the EURO GAME designed to familiarise you with the new currency.

― Tom, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

This is a BIG DEAL; I was expecting ILE to have said more about it by now.

What touches me is the low-level stuff, the wee contingencies - like the first Euros being spent in Reunion (?) hours before our midnight; and Finland and Greece going in hours before; someone standing at a cashpoint in Toulouse or Cork for the first sight, smell and touch of something very symbolically (politically) significant.

This thing arrived by stealth - I didn't know it was going to happen. But it reopens the debates with a new flavour. I still think there are arguments for and against, but (as many have said) E-Day (where the heck do you get your E-symbols, by the way?) grants it a new tone of inevitability.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Alt + 4 on your keyboard = €, Pinefox.

― Tom, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Ahem. Ctrl + Alt + 4. Actually.

― Sarah, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

The coins have a real french feel to them. And the 50 cent and 1 euro ones look like 2ps.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It was a tad disappointing that the first Euro financed transaction was a kilo of lychees. A box of French ticklers would have been more poignant.

― Trevor, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

French woman on CNN called them 'heavy and ugly'. How you finding it so far Ronan?

― stevo, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Blimey Starry is right. My Alt Gr button does it on its own, but I suppose thats what the 'Gr' bit is doing. I just thought it might be a grumpier version of Alt.

― Tom, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It's grand really. I'm kind of going on the whole rough divide by 4 multiply by 5 or vice versa conversion thing. I havent been to a pub yet, the fuckers snuck in a 30p increase on pints. 4 euros for a pint, thats 3 pounds 20 as far as I know. Unbelievable.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

re. the heavy and ugly thing - there's always monster bitching whenever new coins come in. I remember it with the 20p, £1 and £2 coins. The 20p is a bit crap but the £1 is the thing I'll miss most now when we do go to the €.

― Tom, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

coins *should* be heavy: that way you know you are loaded

― mark s, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It's that they arent heavy or ugly that is the problem. they could never be accused of anything like that cos they're just sort of dull. it's not like the old pounds and pence coins were a party in your wallet with everyone invited either though.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

of course in the good old days a ten pound note was big enough to shelter a family of six under for a year, even as the skies dropped molten iron in rivulets of death

― mark s, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

your family had ten pound notes???????????????? excuse me your majesty.

― Ronan, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

there's already been two bank robberies in ireland today - a good day for it: banks stocking up on euro notes, general confusion, big queues.

everything i've bought today has cost slightly less as a result of euro conversion - the trend seems to be round down rather than round up, which is nice. i'm unsurprised to hear that pubs are the exception to this.

― rener, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Prior to the €-notes being distributed Dutch police picked up dozens of convicted criminals, out on license for robberies, and held them over the transition period.

― stevo, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Hmmmmm... unilateral revocation of licence... aren't Holland signed up to the European Convention of Human Rights?!!

― Trevor, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

There hasn't been enough publicising of the fact that 'euro' is lower case. I know it comes from 'Europe' but the powers that be decided that no other currency unit starts with a capital letter so the euro should follow suit.

― N., Friday, 4 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i found my first euro from another country yesterday! it was french. it was quite thrilling - i didn't expect furren euros to start popping up in my change for ages yet.

― rener, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My first two 'foreign' coins were French too. Winter sporters returning from their hols?

― stevo, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

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