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A 'RETRO' cinema in Madrid allows customers to pay for their tickets in pesetas up to and including March 31 this year, either for immediate use or for showings later on in 2021.
The Artistic Metropol only opened its doors eight years ago, but its scheduling is reminiscent of the days when cinema was a new and exciting facility, a window on the world and a burgeoning social hang-out for the young: Double sessions of two films back to back, silent films with live piano accompaniment, arthouse and low-budget national and even local productions, and décor almost identical to the 'flicks' or 'film theatres' of the 1960s and 1970s.
A spokesperson for the Artistic Metropol says that if everything else about this independent cinema was deliberately vintage, then it was fitting it should 'give another turn of the screw' and let viewers 'buy their tickets or season passes in old money', giving it a practical use in its 'last few months of life'.
And Spain's pre-euro currency really is in its last few months of life – after June 30 this year, anyone who still has peseta notes and coins will no longer be able to exchange them for 'modern money'.
The deadline was going to be the last day of 2020, but was extended due to restrictions on travel applied as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, given that exchanges can now only be made in person at the Bank of Spain, in the centre of Madrid.
Pesetas were replaced by the euro 19 years ago, but the Bank of Spain has calculated that nearly €1.6 billion in the old currency remained in circulation as at the end of September 2020.
It is likely, though, that the majority of this figure will never be changed for euros – either because travelling to Madrid would cost more than the total face value of the pesetas a person holds, or because they are held onto as keepsakes.
The Bank of Spain believes a high percentage of these €1.6 billion in pesetas are gathering dust in homes around the world, kept as souvenirs of the owners' holidays in the country.
Some rarer or collectible peseta coins may be worth considerably more than their face value, meaning it might still be possible to convert them into euros by selling them.
As for the Artistic Metropol, its accepted payments are not entirely vintage: Euros are, of course, taken as well as pesetas, and debit and credit cards or mobile phone Apps can also be used for buying tickets.
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