| The
Euro
On 1 January 2002,
the euro banknotes and coins were introduced
in 12 Member States of the European Union,
with seven different banknotes and eight
coins.
The 12 member
states
are Belgium,
Germany,
Greece,
Spain,
France,
Ireland,
Italy,
Luxembourg,
The Netherlands,
Austria,
Portugal,
Finland.
Sweden
will join the euro area as soon as it has
fulfilled all the conditions. Denmark and
the UK have not joined as yet, and have opt-out
clauses that do not oblige them to adopt the
euro.
The new coins – 50
billion
of them – have one side common to all
12 countries and a reverse side specific to
each country, while the 14.5 billion banknotes
look the same throughout the
euro area.
Altogether, the banknotes
and coins
produced total over €664 billion.
The banknotes
circulate in denominations of EUR
5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500.
There are two euro coins in denominations
of EUR 1
and 2.
The other coins are cents (100
in a euro),
and circulate in denominations of cent
1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50.
The Spanish
peseta
The vast majority
of pesetas, both coins and notes, were destroyed
some time ago.
If you find you
have any Spanish
pesetas tucked away somewhere, then
don’t bring them to Spain as they
are no longer legal tender and cannot be
used nor changed
into Euros at a bank.
Many Spaniards
still talk in pesetas,
especially with regard to house prices.
The official conversion rate from pesetas
to euros is 166.386
pesetas = 1 euro.
The best way to convert from pesetas to
euros is to divide by 1000 and then multiply
by 6. This is because 1000
pesetas equates to roughly 6 euros.
Eg. 25,000
pesetas divided by 1000 = 25,
multiplied by 6
= 150 euros.
See also
Banknotes
Coins
Live
Exchange Rates
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