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the euro
January 1 2002 isn't only the start of a new year but also the start of the euro. We are now able to pay in euro's.
What I would like to know is what do all of you think about it. Is it a great step forward or is it the biggest mistake the EU ever made. I would like to hear especially the ones from the UK, Denmark and Sweden(means you too Series :)).
Personally I think it is a very good thing. You won’t loose money if you go to an other country and we will be a stronger economic society. First I thought it was a bit sad because we would lose our Belgian Frank, but now I don't care anymore. We are part of something bigger and I like it.
I also would like to know (to follow Kermi3 post) If you live in a EU country that will use the euro, live in a the EU and will not use the euro, or don’t live the EU at all.
I’m holding a 20 euro bill right now, and it looks nice.
Maybe on a side note but what did you think of the Belgian EU presidentsie (spelling?)
Did you know the countries around the Gulf are also discussing a monatair (spelling?) union?
Thx
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Well, I must say I like it.
Holland is a very small country, when driving for a few hours we are in a different country where we used to have to pay with different money. After all, Europe consists of many small countries. So I like it that we now have a kind of money which we can use in many of these countries.
I read that even in the Balkan countries where the German Mark was used a lot, the governments also think about using the Euro.
It will take some weeks/months before people are really common with the Euro. But I think that on 1 january 2003, the people who are now going to pay with Euro's will feel so confident with it, that they can hardly remember their former money.
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Maes, as you know I live in Scotland but I'm Spanish. Therfore I won't be using the Euro in a daily basis, but I will every time I travel around Europe.
It's a bit sad to loose the Peseta (Spanish money) after 134 years of use, but I think it's worth.
For "normal" people like you and me, it's going to be more comfortable when we travel, when we want to compare different countries, .... for example, I've crossed Europe a few times, and I hate loosing money just to get change. Or, every time I move money between my bank accounts (I have some in Spain, UK and Germany) I loose a lot because of the different currencies.
For the European companies is going to be great. For example, a company based in Belgium might have to do some process in Portugal (cheap labour), then transport the product back to Belgium and finish it. Then, take it to Germany to sell it. This means that if you use all the different currencies, it'd be a pain in the .......... to calculate the costs; and you'd need a margin because of the change of the value of each coin. So, if you use just the Euro, the product might get a bit cheaper, even if it's just a very little bit. This would make a more competitive market.
Of course the Euro will bring problems as well, for example, it will be more difficult to know if someone is paying with real/false money. As you'd use notes from different countries.
Do you guys think that the UK will join the Euro as well? I'm sure they will as soon as I live the country :p
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Yep. Euro here. German Marks are going to expire in February. Until then we can pay in both currencies, but only get Euro as change. In february Euro is the only accepted currency. I'm sorry to see it go, but then, the new Euros aren't so bad. I'm just glad each bill has a different color like the German Marks had. I really hate american money, where you just have a bunch of green paper and no clue what it is worth without looking at every single one. This way, I can just look into my purse, see I've got two greys, a green and a red and know it's about 80 Marks. ( Don't know the equivalent euro colors yet... ) I wonder how you US guys do that... Oh, four greens, must be $57... :confused:
I don't think it's a big deal, but all the older people, who still remember the war and the new currency ( Marks ) being introduced, are afraid their money will lose it's value...
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i like the concept of a europe wide currency for ease of use and travelling freely between european states. However i do not think it is a good idea for all economic polocies to be controlled by Central European Government.
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hmm rather easy to tell apart money here in the states. different textures, pictures, and words on each, you get use to it:p
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Yeah, I don't think I've ever gotten a 1 and a 20 confused before.
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I did once and the Pizza guy was very happy with his tip :-)
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> Oh, four greens, must be $57.
Actually, it's more like: "Yup, that's a lot of wallet - $0"
btw - purse implies a little bag women carry (a Handtasche), men carry wallets (Brieftasche)... Unless you actually carry a purse, in which case, no offense.
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lol... nope, it's a wallet then of course. I seem to get too much of my vocabulary from fantasy games ;) I could probably describe an armoury of medieval weapons in detail, but don't ask me to get a breakfast in the US on my own... I would probably either starve or have a 'burger in the morning :rolleyes: However, I hate your style of marking bills. Can't you just do color coding like the rest ? or different sizes ? Anything the normal european guy without intimate knowledge of the last 50 presidents of the US can cope with ? Whatever, I don't seem to get to the US in the near future anyway :(
Hey, a question for the other Euros: Do you have an easy exchange course Euro -> YourFormerCurrency ? 1 Euro is roughly 2 Marks here. It's quite easy. I guess it would suck if it were like 1 -> 1379,68...
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haha, I was just about to ask him about the purse comment, too...
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but don't ask me to get a breakfast in the US on my own... I would probably either starve or have a 'burger in the morning
<<
Ask for:
"cereal"
"waffle" (yum)
or "a large bowl of ketchup" ;)
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> a large bowl of ketchup
You're an evil bastard... :)
> Anything the normal european guy without intimate knowledge of the last 50 presidents of the US can cope with ?
Yeah, if you have intimate knowledge of the numbers 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100, you should be fine. Besides, not everyone on the bills are presidents.
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Not to mention I don't even know who the last 50 presidents were...I think we may have had one named washington...but that's about it ;)
>>You're an evil bastard
What? That's a perfectly normal breakfast meal!! :)
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Also not to mention that we haven't had 50 presidents...
> That's a perfectly normal breakfast meal!!
Maybe for that kid from "Big Daddy" :D
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>>Also not to mention that we haven't had 50 presidents...
right. my point exactly *fiddles nervously in seat, runs out the door*
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I've concluded that the people at the U.S. Mint in charge of currency design are incompetent. The $1 coin is the best illustration of this. Sometime in the 1970s, a $1 dollar coin was released with Susan B. Anthony on the front. Unfortunatly, the coin was almost the exact same size and color as a quarter (25 cent piece), and was only produced in small numbers along side the usuall massive production run of $1 bills. It rapidly faded into oblivion.
Two years ago they decided to try again. This time the coin (now featuring Sacajawea, the American Indian guide to Lewis and Clark) was made substantially bigger than the quarter, and a shiny gold color (very similar to the Canadian $1 coin.) They ran a multi-million dollar ad campaign on national TV and distributed the coin in large numbers at major department stores. Then, apparently, they forgot about it, and I haven't seen one in over a year while crisp new $1 bills are still all over the place. They don't seem to grasp that for the coin to be successful, they have to get rid of the bill.
As for colored currency, that's about as likely to show up here anytime soon as the metric system (though metric units are very slowly creeping up on us, especially in pharmaceutical products and beverages.)
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I was working in this store in downtown Chicago a while back. Just to mess with people, I would give them the gold dollar as change lol...People ALWAYS wanted a bill instead. No one likes change except my grandpa ...He carries so much change around he must weigh an extra 10lbs.
People think of them as more of a collectible than a form of currency. It's funny. But they are all over the place here ...I see them all the time.
If I am gonna look at a bill to see what color it is ...I can just as easily look at it to see the number on it. Maybe it is easier to have different colors, but I wouldn't know.
What's the U.S exchange rate on these Euros? I didn't hear anything about it till I saw something on CNN yesterday. How many countries are actually involved?
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Color bills are easier to use. Imagine you're a grandma, and you need your glasses to know which bill you're holding; wouldn't it be easier just to know the value for each color? And also the size, the bigger the higher value.
An Euro is 166 pesetas, that's quite difficult to use. For Germans (as it's been said before), it's the easiest ratio, 2:1.
For people (like me) who use the Sterling Pound, it's something like 1:1,65
>>I didn't hear anything about it till I saw something on CNN yesterday. How many countries are actually involved?
:eek: All of them (except three, I think)
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Cash is already becoming obsolete. Everyone uses Credit Cards (e.g.- Visa).
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>>Do you have an easy exchange course Euro -> YourFormerCurrency ?<<
For Belgium: 1 euro is 40 belgian franks.
>>How many countries are actually involved?
Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Ireland, Itali, Luxemburg, Holland, Austria, Portugal, Spain and Greece. (sorry if I translated the name of a county wrong)
Denmark, UK and Sweden aren't intoducing the new currency
>>What's the U.S exchange rate on these Euros?
1 euro = 0.88$ (I think)
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A bowl of ketchup ? Yuck. Maybe a hot soup, but ketchup... *shudder*. How do I know what it means ? It's the same word in German ;)
>I think we may have had one named washington...but that's about it
I think you had 2 or more Bushes, a Clinton, Reagan, 2 or more Roosevelts, Lincoln, Jefferson... well, I'd have to look up the rest here.
>Cash is already becoming obsolete. Everyone uses Credit Cards
Everyone ? I am. My parents aren't. My grandparents aren't. If that's the average family, we will need hard currency for the next 100 years at least. Most students I know don't have credit cards either, because they cost fees. There are locals ( i.e. Germany only ) cards, but you can't pay anywhere but in Germany and the german websites with it...
>1,5,19,20
Yes, I know they have numbers. But I want to have an approximation just by the color of my wallet's contents... like "It's mostly green with some grey... at least 30 Marks, enough for a burger." If I had to use dollars, I'd have to count. "one. another one. another one. Oh, twenty, alright, let's go grab a burger."
It's not that it would be impossible... it's just more work... and I don't like working because someone else didn't think about it ;)
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In response to the guy whose grandpa likes carrying change. i carry a ton of change, of course noe of you will ever find out for the next 12 years, 221 days. I'm dead serious - I know exactly what will happen on August 11th 2014. And no, I'm not a terrorist. I just plan on a long and fruitful life of constant pay phone calls to Northern California... Now I'm keeping you all in suspense, which will last a total of ten seconds until you lose interest.
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rriiiggghtttt, sean. you just keep thinking that.
>>It's the same word in German
Ah, damn you. :)
>>1,5,19,20
there's a 19 dollar bill?
Heh, and to answer nvoigt, nobody ever gives exact change. We normally just pull out 10s and 20s and get change. I mean, if me and my brother are going to burger king I just grab a 10. No searching for 1s and paying the people exactly...that's just stupid. Plus, it usually requires you having some change, and like it was said: people HATE change. I know I do.
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Hey, if I wanted to be mocked I'd go over to my brother's house.
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And you're only jealous because the voices talk to me.
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to quote ralph wiggum:
"And that's where I saw the leprechaun! He tells me to burn things!"
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In Denmark we had a referendum on whether to join or not, and a small majority of people who really didn't understand the issues, but were stirred up by some creative "anti" campaigning, managed to keep us out. We will not be using them routinely.
Several of the large shops in Copenhagen accept them, but then they have always accepted various foreign currencies. I read in one of the papers that a reporter had wandered around town trying to buy things with Euro's and was quite suprised by how many places would take them.
Most residents in Denmark use a thing called a "Dankort" card anyway. It is not a credit card, more a debit card that works with your bank account.
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I would like to add that I, too, hate change. What happens when I got a few pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters as change? I shove them in some desk drawer and forget about them, or I just give them to someone else. The Sacagowea dollar coin is still a rarity: I have never been given one as change. As others have said, most people view the Sacagowea dollar coin as an oddity and collectable instead of usable money.
In my wallet, I typically try to keep similar denominations of bills next to eachother to more easily keep track of them. Seeing the big portrait on the bills is also an easy way of identifying them, although it is probably slightly more difficult than working with bills of different colors and, maybe, with bills of different sizes.
In the U.S., the average person would probably appreciate the euro in that it would make European tourism easier for them. A complaint among Americans who can actually afford to visit Europe fairly frequently is keeping track of all the European currencies: Before, they had to get their French francs, their Deutsche marks, their Italian lira, etc.
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Well, the reason we hate change is because it's worthless - what can you buy for $0.25? However, $1 can buy a lot of things, and allows you to just reach into your pocket rather than fumbling through a billfold searching for the right denomination.
Unfortunately, the $1 coin seems headed for oblivion yet again. It's a real shame that all that money is probably simply going to produce another failure like the half dollar coin and the two dollar bill.
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What gets me is that a ton of other countries have made it work. I used to live in New Zeland, their, the currency goes as follows:
coins:
1c
2c
5c
10c
50c
$1
$2
notes/bills:
$5
10
etc..
It works fine. If we just stuck with an original system, people wouldn't have a problem.
Did you know - In Zimbabwe, with their exchange rate (600 zim $ = 1 US $. By the time I send this message, it will have gotten worse, trust me. You can be millinaaire there, and you'd still have to beg on the streets and live in an iron shack.