Europeans old enough to remember: what was it like transitioning to the Euro currency?

[Dr. Mario]

Still know the conversion rate by heart, 1:2.20371. Not that I spent a lot of time calculating, maybe two weeks, and big purchases for a bit longer, it quickly became the new normal.
I was pretty excited by it, even though I didn't travel that much at the time (I was 19 so only two holidays a year or so, this may seem strange to an American, but I'm traveling abroad now at least six times a year, so I would never ever want to go back to individual currencies). But getting a whole slew of shiny new banknotes from the ATM was pretty cool. They weren't as nice as our old (Dutch) banknotes, but still colorful. 1 and 2 cents were absolutely dreadful though, happy they ditched those as soon as possible.

 

[Deleted member 2809]

The source is first hand experience of whoever lived through it, as a kid with 10.000 Lire you felt like a king while few months later with 5€ you felt like a peasant.
And at least in Italy it wasn't a matter of "people can't convert lmao" because the conversion was 2000:1 which for all intents and purposes is essentially 2:1 for the brain.
It's not (only) anti-EU bullshit, it's the truth.

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So no source then

 

[Deleted member 35204]

So no source then

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Whatever dude, believe what you want.

 

[sfortunato]

I was 13 at the time but in Italy it went pretty smoothly.

Berlusconi even sent to every family a converter to use it in shops and stuffs.

Issue was, store owners and firms in general raised prices a lot. People got very rich in the year just after the introduction of the Euro but then things settled.

 

[CloudWolf]

I remember that everything suddenly became twice as expensive. Pretty much everyone just directly transferred the Dutch guilder price to Euro, nevermind that a guilder was worth half as much as a Euro. So something that you'd buy for ƒ2,00 would suddenly be €2,00, despite that actually being closer to ƒ4,00.

That said, the Euro made a lot in life a lot easier. Travelling around became super easy without the hassle of figuring out a new currency every time. Also, my sis really got into collecting different kind of Euros. I do kind of miss the 2,50 coin (Rijksdaalder) tho.

 

[sfortunato]

The source is first hand experience of whoever lived through it, as a kid with 10.000 Lire you felt like a king while few months later with 5€ you felt like a peasant.
And at least in Italy it wasn't a matter of "people can't convert lmao" because the conversion was 2000:1 which for all intents and purposes is essentially 2:1 for the brain.
It's not (only) anti-EU bullshit, it's the truth.

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Prices went up after the introduction of the Euro BUT the Euro helped stabilizing inflation which, in Italy, was pretty crazy. So things went to normal in 2003-2004 already. Just look at the inflation graph pre-Euro and post-Euro: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/com...ia-italiana-primi-vent-anni-dell-euro-ACGqP8E

 

[cyba89]

Collecting coins from all the different countries as a kid was fun. Was always a little exciting to get a coin from a foreign country.

 

[Carn]

I think that's happening already - at least some countries are trialing. We've been doing it a while here (Ireland), and it seems everyone is happy with it.

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same for the Netherlands, fortunately.

 

[uzipukki]

Collecting coins from all the different countries as a kid was fun. Was always a little exciting to get a coin from a foreign country.

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I do this today. Love seeing special coins too, like the Tove Jansson Euro. Have that saved up.

 

[alstrike]

Source on this ?
People complaining about price raises because of euro is often a lot of bullshit. One of anti-EU fucks' favorite talking points.

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Dude I was there and worked at the time in the biggest supermarket chain in Spain, no need to be so aggressive.

By the way, complaining about prices makes me anti-EU? GTFO with that rethoric.

 

[FliX]

It was super exciting a bunch of us went to the ATM at midnight to get fresh money.
If I remember correctly you could get a pack of coins a few weeks ahead of time, they were a popular gift and everything felt like monopoly money because it felt so unfamiliar.
Then the transition to day to day was pretty uneventful.
Loads of stories about jacked up prices, some probably true, some probably false.

Honestly I cannot imagine going back. It is just so convenient when traveling.
We used to have 5 different purses when traveling from Germany to the UK in order to pay in all the transitory countries.
Add to that the passport checks.

Shengen and the Euro are an often underappreciated gift to the continent.


P.s. it was also a lot of fun collecting all the different coin designs from the different countries.

 

[F-Pina]

Always thought that we (Portugal) had a lot of prices getting bumped up because of he conversion. So I remember thinking that retailers were using the coming of the Euro as an excuse to inflate prices. After reading most of the answers it seems this happened everywhere.

Our coin (Escudos, roughly translated as shields) was at the time very similar to the Yen, so 1.000 Escudos would be something like 5 Euros.
Again, like in every country, old people were constantly annoyed and confused.

After a year or so, there were still a lot of people holding on to Escudos, hoping that we might transition back or just because they had a lot of money in the matress or something. The banks had to issue multiple requests in the media for people to hand over the old notes and coins.

 

[Deleted member 2809]

Dude I was there and worked at the time in the biggest supermarket chain in Spain, no need to be so aggressive.

By the way, complaining about prices makes me anti-EU? GTFO with that rethoric.

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Nah, just saying that the far right love these unsubstantiated claims that the euro made everything much more expensive when in general it's just inflation, selective memory, disinformation and people being shit at maths. I'm not saying there was no abuse from some businesses, I'm sure there was.

 

[djplaeskool]

Relatively painless. Was living in Germany and recall the period through 1999 where both old and new currencies were being accepted, right before I moved back to the States. At all levels of commerce, businesses seemed to handle conversion without drama, from my experience and recollection. It moved to Euros extremely quickly, but it wasn't a hassle to use Marks the first couple of months. By Spring, it was all Euros.
Still have around 50 Deutsche Marks I kept for posterity.

 

[FliX]

I think that's happening already - at least some countries are trialing. We've been doing it a while here (Ireland), and it seems everyone is happy with it.

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I believe Finland never really had 1 & 2 cents in circulation.

 

[VaanXSnake]

It took me some times to put a real values on euros, I needed to convert in my previous money to understand how expensive stuff were at the time but I'm good now.

 

[Rhaknar]

It was fine for me but it was annoying people going "so its 10 euros...you mean its whatever in old currency"

No. It means its 10 euros, STFU and move on with your life.

 

[PositivePolitique]

I think in Ireland we adopted it the fastest of all Europeans. I'm not 100% about that but we stopped accepting Irish pounds very quickly after the Euro was adopted. Can't remember it that well, I was only young.

I was quite glad we switched. It's less hassle for regular people and it's better to be part of a major strong international currency I suppose (soon to be strongest after Brexit?). Besides, euros look more beautiful than all the other currencies hah.

 

[Oleander]

I was only eleven when it happened, so I didn't engage much on an economic level, but I was mostly really excited to get coins from other countries. We still have a giant frame at home with an example of each coin from the original fifteen countries. Even now, whenever I get coins as change, I still flip the coins around to see where each has come from. Even in Ireland, I swear every second coin I get is German...

I especially love the special €2 coins that many countries mint to acknowledge specific events. I have a bunch of Irish ones commemorating the centenary of the 1916 Rising, for instance, but I especially love getting ones from other countries commemorating all sorts of other historical events or anniversaries of famous Europeans. I try to keep one of each I come across, and have a fairly large number of them lying around now that should really just be used for their purpose! The currencies do change over time, also, such as the Dutch coins showing King Willem-Alexander from when he was crowned, rather than Queen Beatrix.

But overall, right away, I loved the ease of using the same currency across most of the continent. You know exactly what you're getting with your money whether you're in Spain, Italy, or Greece, and I find that really valuable.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Painless. The whole thing was extremely well-organized, it took about a week to get used to the coins and notes, and about a month to get a sense of what everything was "worth."

 

[Rangerx]

It was fine. I just handed over my punts and got euro in return. It looked like Monopoly money at the time though.

 

[ByteCulture]

Doubled price for everything

 

[BobbeMalle]

Only 90s kids will remember this:

But seriously, stores had double prices almost immediately, so it wasn't difficult as far as I am concerned.

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Yeah those were confusing times for us and even now some old people think in Lira

 

[Jasup]

I believe Finland never really had 1 & 2 cents in circulation.

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True. Finnish 1 & 2 cent coins were made before the transition, so they exist. But they never were put in circulation. Also no one accepts the small coins, so I've accumulated quite a few during the years from other euro countries.

 

[Keuja]

Had to mentally keep converting back and forth. Other than that, it went smooth.

 

[haveheart]

I got two starter packs that included all the new coins (€10,--).
I planned on saving them as memorabilia but after two weeks I had fed every coin to cigarette vending machines.

 

[Kaim Argonar]

Extremely easy to adapt to it, but everything BRUTALLY spiked up in price in Spain and it made us all lowborns poorer.

Nah, just saying that the far right love these unsubstantiated claims that the euro made everything much more expensive when in general it's just inflation, selective memory, disinformation and people being shit at maths. I'm not saying there was no abuse from some businesses, I'm sure there was.

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It wasn't just inflation. It was an overnight spike in prices in Spain. Like a lot of stuff that was 100 Pesetas was directly changed to 1 Euro, which was around 166.386 Pesetas back then. A 66% overnight price increase.

 

[Paertan]

We still use out own currency but when travelling it sure is nice to mostly have one currency to exchange for. Meaning you can use you money left from one trip on another. And the exchange rate is easier to remember. If we voted now though I would probably vote for transitioning to Euro.

 

[Binabik15]

Everyone in Germany may remember the downgrade of feeling going from the mighty 5 Mark coin to 2€.
As a kid having a heavy 5 DM coin at hand in the small store was like being a king 😁

Apart from that, I had no problem with the transition.

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Yeah, that's the only thing I actually *miss* from the times before the Euro. I kept at least one, maybe a couple. It's my favourite coin from a perspective of someone not collecting coins, but having handled a few EU and non-EU currencies. It was big but simple and it felt like money you could find in a pirate's secret stash or a king's ransom.


Oh, and those "beginners bags" of Euros? I kept mine and it fucking sucks, it's all dirty inaide, like someone smeared everything with lead pencil dust. I thought our fancy Euros are made of sterner stuff?

 

[Deleted member 35204]

Yeah those were confusing times for us and even now some old people think in Lira

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Thinking in Lire is still a funny self reality check on how much you are spending "oh yeah i'm spending 500€ on a smartphone no big deal... oh wait i'm spending UN MILIONE for a phone? the hell is wrong with me?" this totally discards the concept of inflation but it's still fun.

 

[Mendrox]

Everything was suddenly more expensive which sucked. So no good memories except for shiny new coins.

 

[Deleted member 9932]

Everything was more expensive after

 

[sfortunato]

Thinking in Lire is still a funny self reality check on how much you are spending "oh yeah i'm spending 500€ on a smartphone no big deal... oh wait i'm spending UN MILIONE for a phone? the hell is wrong with me?" this totally discards the concept of inflation but it's still fun.

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Before Euro came technology was much more expensive. You couldn't find a cellphone for 140.000 Lire (now you can find cellphones for 70 Euro easily). Also, computers were much more expensive. The cost of technology really decreased a lot.

 

[Kivvi]

We didn't expect prices to rise that much

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This pretty much. The transition wasn't that hard but the prices went up high. I remember my grandmother getting angry that her favourite coffee drink went from 0,76€ to 1,20€. Naturally, our pays didn't go up like that what made a lot of people worried/angry.

 

[Deleted member 35204]

Before Euro came technology was much more expensive. You couldn't find a cellphone for 140.000 Lire (now you can find cellphones for 70 Euro easily). Also, computers were much more expensive. The cost of technology really decreased a lot.

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Cellphones were also a pretty new thing back then and computers also weren't as nearly as widespread as today but mine was less an argument about phones and more about the imposing value that one million Lire had at the time.

 

[TheDutchSlayer]

Painless for me, took maybe a few weeks to get used to, but then it was fine.

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Yeah but the amount of people shitting about it and calculating back and saying everything was better in Gulden took way longer then I thought.
Took like almost 10 years.
Mostly boomers though.

 

[eXistor]

Yeah but the amount of people shitting about it and calculating back and saying everything was better in Gulden took way longer then I thought.
Took like almost 10 years.
Mostly boomers though.

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My dad still does this. We know dad.

 

[Atram]

I remember that I worked in a Restaurant (to supplement my study costs). It was hilarious because I made 150€ in Tips the first day of the Euro. The people didn't had the feeling for the value

 

[Untzillatx]

Everyone walked around with tiny calculators that did the pesetas-Euro conversions.

 

[LordRuyn]

The only thing I remember is prices for basic goods going way up when comparing with the exchange rate.

 

[Deleted member 28307]

Most prices doubled, that was fun

 

[Osahi]

I was 14 on january 1st 2002 and found it very exciting. I remember my mother coming home from the bank with a 'starter kit' containing all coins and some lower notes. The whole family checking everything out...

First year or so we also collected the coins frop other nations. We literally flipped every exchange we had over to see from which country it came. At first it was all Holland, France and Germany, but after a while Spain, Italy and Portugal too. It was very exciting to find a more 'rare' one like a Finish 2 euro coin.

I also remember the idea persisting we would do the exchange rate to Belgian francs for the rest of our lives, but after a couple of years nobody did (though my parents sometimes have the expression "that's xxx francs you know!" when something is deemed expensive.

 

[RocknRola]

Some of us in Europe still have our own currency and didn't transition to the Euro btw.

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Well, yeah, but you're just a bunch of weirdos anyway :v Join the UNITY!!!

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It was fun, for me. Probably a headache for my parents and millions of adults around the continent though. I was kid during the transation, so the year(s) before we were taught how much the € was worth versus our own coin and it was kinda exciting getting to actually use it afterwards, seeing the new coins and notes and all that. I remember there were even specific € to country coin calculators being sold in that time period.

 

[Tunesmith]

I remember voting no to the Euro in 2003 (Sweden). A decision that served the country well during the 2008 crisis.
That said, I've since moved abroad and use the Euro as local currency and its fine with the downside being that it makes spending money "easier". The lower denominations of the EUR compared to SEK (~1:10) makes it seem like its less money than it really is when spending it (the brain is weird).

 

[Berto]

I was 17 at the time. It was surprisingly easy and smooth. At first I still had to think in the old currency and do the conversion mentally all the time, but quickly it became second skin. Nowadays I have to stop and think if I want convert back to the old currency.

 

[RocknRola]

Source on this ?
People complaining about price raises because of euro is often a lot of bullshit. One of anti-EU fucks' favorite talking points.

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Nah, he's right. I remember that too in Portugal.

Stuff like coffee, which was (at the time) priced from 40 escudos (our old coin) to 60 escudos would be the equivalent of either 0.20 or 0.30 € cents. However, as soon as the change happened the baseline price became 0.50 € cents ( which == 100 escudos).

This sort of "sly" increase in price was seen in stuff like bread, milk, meat, etc. So there was a big increase in the day to day cost of life, even though the numbers still seem small. The issue is that people continued to receive exactly the same amount of money as before, just now in €, there wasn't an increase in salaries (at the the time).

Of course these days people are used to it and the general cost of life has increased even more (as well as the salaries of course) but the market took quite the advantge of that transition period to establish much higher baseline prices.

 

[Deleted member 2809]

Once again I'm not denying there was some rounding abuses going on, but how come everybody is quoting coffee and nobody cites no source whatsoever ?

 

[johancruijff]

the few months with both currencies were fun

 

[Kismet]

I remember my aunt not being a millionaire anymore after the transition. But she didn't mind.

And that a f2 drink became a €2 drink. Many other things as well. It didn't feel fair at all...

 

[RocknRola]

Once again I'm not denying there was some rounding abuses going on, but how come everybody is quoting coffee and nobody cites no source whatsoever ?

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Have fun then: https://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication6796_pt.pdf . That's straight from the European Commission. I'm sure there's an English version somewhere, but I can't be bothered.