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Time has
run out for old European currencies:
On Jan 1st, 2002,
the official currency for 12 European nations has become the Euro (symbol:
€, value:
about 90 US cents). This is an unprecedented move to unify the European
financial infrastructure and will have far-reaching consequences that
might be felt even in the United States. Some countries like Germany bit
the bullet and converted their currency overnight whereas others like
France and Italy gave their harried citizens up to six weeks to convert
their brain patterns to the new money.
As Europe is becoming an homogeneous market comprising more consumers than
the USA, manufacturers will direct their primary attention to European
needs and design their products & services accordingly. With a unified
financial market and soon a harmonized taxation system, it will be easier
for Europe to compete in the international markets. But it will also be
easier for US manufacturers and service providers to deal with multiple
European countries thanks to the simplification provided by the unique
currency. The kink to work out is to appeal to European taste...
The
internet business is alive and well in Europe also and although smaller,
it is actually growing faster than it has been in the US lately and will
not reach saturation for a few years. But European regulations are
stricter than their US equivalent, particularly when it comes to privacy
issues. This is an area that software developers and integrator must pay
close attention to when developing products for use in the European Union.
In the meantime, let's pay a last tribute to the Deutsche Mark (over 200
years old), the French Franc (over 600 years old) and the Greek Drachma
(over 2,500 years old!) and all other European currencies that now belong
to History.
BTW: The British Pound will survive for another 10 years, but who could
ever expect the Brits to do things like everybody else?
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Some level of
national identity is maintained, but only for coins where the 'head' side varies depending upon the issuing
national bank. The 'tails'
side is always the same. All bank notes are identical however since they
are issued only by the European Central Bank, not by the nations. Bank
notes celebrate European architectural monuments throughout the ages
instead of honoring Presidents or statespersons.
Denominations:
Coins: 1, 2, 5 cents (red copper), 10, 20, 50 cents (yellow brass)
and 1 & 2 Euros (dual color yellow and silver).
Banknotes: 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500. The larger the value, the
larger the size.
The new notes combine multiple anti-forging devices ranging from
micro-print to holograms. Both coins and notes have special 'touch
identification' features to make them usable by the visually impaired.
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