Spare change

If your currency is the euro, take a closer look at the coinage. It may surprise you to see such a variety of different countries represented on the reverse of the coins. In my own collection, I have a natural majority of Finnish coins, but there’s also a German 2 , Spanish 1 , French 10 cent, an Italian 5 cent and an Australian cent, although I’m not sure how that got there.

The circulation of the euro has reached its third year, it is used in 12 European Union member states and Estonia will be adopting the currency in 2006. It appears as though the euro is here to stay, even if people believed that about the Lira, Deutsche Mark and Drachma. There is a hope in England that the British Pound will not succumb to the ‘dark forces’ of the Euro and become another member of the Eurozone.

However, a report in 2004 revealed that Tony Blair has set a target of 2007 to take Britain into the euro, but I doubt that the general public will be seeing the Queen’s head on the reverse of Luc Luyckx’s design anytime soon, while the Swedish krona looks to be safe until 2013 at the earliest following their referendum.

The euro has aided the development of the Single European Market, facilitates free trade and is regarded as an integral component of European political integration, but the greatest benefit has been the unfortunate shape that Sweden and Finland resemble on the euro coin amusing the inner child within us all.

Estonia will be the next to enjoy this childish observation when they bid farewell to the Estonian Kroon in the coming months. Estonians chose Lembit Lõhmus’ design for all eight coins, which simply portrays the outline of the country. It joins the heraldic lion of Finland, the German eagle, the Colosseum in Rome, the Irish harp and many more, but what it will highlight is the price difference with its neighbour Finland.

Hopefully, Estonia adopting the euro will bring greater price transparency between the two countries and eventually benefit consumers on both sides of the Sea of Finland. Unfortunately, I believe there is a greater chance of a finding a  1000 banknote in the street than Finland lowering the cost of goods or services. If you don’t agree, then let’s flip a coin…heads I win, tails you lose.