SHOW & TELL - Euros

More participants are here at Kelly's

Probably a lot of you have never seen the Euro, which is now the official money for most of the European countries. It only exists since 2001 and we all had very hard to get used to this new currency. Just imagine that your actual currency would be replaced by a completely different one ? You have to get used to the value of all payable things, from food to a house. If you payed 100 X you suddenly have to pay 200 € or 50 € depending on the value of the local currency. In Belgium 40 francs were suddenly 1 € and in Germany 1 DM, 0,50 cents !

I got used to it by now but most of my friends still calculate in francs and the older once will probably never get used to the new currency and do their shopping with a calculator in their own country.



Fivty and twenty € bills and 2 and 1 € coins



a 10 € bill



All these countries changed to Euros : Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

MANIC MONDAY - GETTING USED TO THE EURO

MANIC MONDAY LINK



The euro is the official currency of the European Union, used in 15 member states : Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. It is also used in 9 other countries around the world, 7 of those being in Europe. Hence it is the single currency for over 320 million Europeans. The Euro was introduced in all these countries on January 1, 2002, except in the United Kingdom and Denmark.

This of course was a big change for all people and especially on the psycological side. In Belgium for example for 1000 francs which sounds a lot you suddenly only had 25 € in your hand. For the Germans it was not better because they got "half" of their salary the one who earned 1000 DM had to be happy with only 500 € with the same value of course. The worst was for the Italians. They all were millionaires with their Lira and to fill in a tank you had to pay millions. Suddenly for 1000 lira they only got 50 CENTS !!

To get used to the European currency was difficult for every adult and we all needed to calculate a lot with the help of all kind of conversion tables. Even lighters had the Belgian Frank = Euro table printed on them. But the once who suffered the most and still do were the elderly people. Some of them really couldn't understand why something which was worth 1000 francs was only worth 25 €. And the Italians instead of their millions only had 10 €.

A lot of people still calculate in their old currencies. The younger once got easily used to it and now there is the new generation who never knew another currency than the Euro. Amongst all my friends and people I know I think we are 4 or 5 who only calculate in Euro and don't think about the old currency anymore. But all the others still calculate in Belgian Francs or other European former currencies. My sister in law even in Lira ! When she tells me that she had bought something for 10 thousand lira you can imagine my face ! It sounds such a lot and in reality it's only 5 € !



Euros and cents