Le Sud de France 4.6: A Fistful of Euros

The Only Good Euro Is A Chocolate One!!!

You know it’s gotten bad when, instead of talking about kitchen remodeling at a party, the conversation begins with, “So how much longer do you think the Euro will last?”

Despite the hope of unifying the nations of Europe after the brutality of World War II the Euro obviously has not. 16 nations use the Euro and they’ve lost the individual flexibility they once had to adjust the value of their money to deal with economic problems. It makes for a lot of bad feelings between these supposedly united countries and the papers and TV are full of reports about the future of the currency.

The Euro became the single currency in 1999. We were in France then and could see that it wasn’t off to a good start. The French had issued new Francs in 1960 to replace old Francs--a revaluation of the currency--and after forty years people had sort of adjusted to it. Prices were still listed in both the old and new Francs and older folks kept cookie jars stuffed with the old bills-- just in case. 

What I did see a lot of then was how uncomfortable people were with the new currency. When the Euro came along prices were converted into Euros and rounded off--and always upwards. People saw that price hike and resented it. 

Acceptance of the new currency has remained awkward and today after 12 years, prices are still given in both Euros and their equivalent in Francs, and in parts of France you can even use Francs for purchases. 

The Euro coinage is also very confusing and at first many old people would just open their purses or extend a handful of coins to a cashier to let them figure out which coins were needed to pay for a purchase. Sadly I still see that happening today.

How in the world did some EU genius in Brussels, or a committee of geniuses, come up with the idea of having eight different coins for their currency? There are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 Euro cent coins and the one and two Euro coins. And as you can see in the photo below they were cleverly designed to be similar in color and design. And all the coins are small and that makes them clumsy to handle.

By comparison the US gets along with just four coins in everyday use; the penny (one cent), the nickel (five cents), the dime (ten cents) and the quarter dollar (twenty-five cents) and each is a different enough that it is easy to tell them apart. There are also fifty cent pieces and dollar coins but you rarely see or use them.

The eight Euro coins make it hard to quickly make change for a payment  and it ends up slowing down cashier  lines and such. 

My biggest bugaboo is how hard it is to get rid of the damn things. Every time I'd go shopping it seems that the number of coins in my pocket always increased in number and weight. 

That's because when you pay for something, cashiers generally try to give you back as many coins as possible. It's like the kid's game of "hot potato." Finally I began to fight back with what I call  "the its your change game."

My strategy is to give the cashier the amount of coins first and then the bills. For example, if my purchase is 34.52 Euros, I hand the cashier 52 cents worth of coins, in as many small coins as possible. And then, only after the coins do I hand over the bigger coins like the 1 and 2 Euros. Then I move on to the paper notes. 

It takes practice but it works.

Debussy on top, Euro bridges below.

I personally dislike the look of the Euro currency designs. The coins are lackluster and the bills feature really boring images of “bridges.” To me it is an ugly currency that sadly replaced some of the most beautiful paper around; like this French Franc with its portrait of composer Claude Debussy. 

While no one knows what will happen with the Euro in the future the feelings towards it aren't good. The responses to the question posed at lunch about how long the Euro will last were pretty negative. A British ex-pilot said, “3 or 4 years” while a Dutch engineer responded dryly, “Hardly that.” Later I saw a TV commentator give it 5 months.

In my case, my response is, 'If it goes, I won't miss it."