For some it is already too late. Others, however, can still convert the money into the old currency. The most fond of pre-euro minting are the Germans.
If there were anyone with nostalgia for the lira, know that in Europe there are more than a few thousand people who, probably, like him regret the currency before the euro. So much so that it chose to keep pieces of minting in circulation before 2002 (the year of effective entry into force of the single currency) without proceeding with the exchange. Be careful, because it’s not just about nostalgics and collectors. Many people, in fact, they may have forgotten to convert the old lire, even leaving large sums somewhere. Except then realizing it when it was already too late. At the moment, in fact, it is literally about money to be thrown away, since no coin or banknote of the old minting can be converted anymore.
Bloomberg recently tried to do the math to find that there is the equivalent of nearly 9 billion dollars in national currencies lying around. A fact that, of course, includes all the European countries that have made the fateful passageor, as early as 2002 or more recently. As mentioned, however, this is money that cannot be used because it is no longer convertible into the single currency. And even the hope that they may in some way be of interest to collectors is quite remote, since not all pieces can have a certain value. What to do then? Good question.
50 thousand lire vs 50 euros, the difference is clear: the prices before the single currency
Money of the old coin: who can still convert them
On the nose, the best solution would be to close the drawer and forget about it. If we were in the world of comics, someone like Rockerduck would eat his bowler hat at the thought of having lost money unnecessarily. But since gnawing at the liver would be useless, for those who can do nothing better to take it philosophically and see it under a different aspect. For example, however, possessing original pieces of a currency which, year after year, it will age acquiring historical value.
But be careful, because not everyone is out of time. Distracted Italians will no longer be able to proceed with the exchange, given that the possibility of lira-euro conversion expired on February 28, 2012. According to Bloomberg, there would be about 1.2 billion total euro in lire still under the mattresses of the Italians. Among the highest figures in Europe, however, second to the old Spanish pesos: there would still be around 1.6 billion around.
But both Italians and Spaniards pale in comparison to the figures in Germany. A good 6.3 billion of the total 8.5 billion of money in old currencies, in fact, would be in German marks. A monstrous figure, so much so that it has prompted experts to ask themselves the reasons for such an entity. Somehow, it is as if German citizens have kept their coins and banknotes in the hope that, sooner or later, they will come in handy for the restoration of the old currency. But since the mark (like the lira, pesos, francs, florins and all other currencies) is unlikely to come back into force, the Germans still have the possibility to change their money: one mark is worth exactly 0.5113 euros.
A few more days also for the Portuguese: the approximately 260 million euros in escudos, in fact, can be converted until February 28, 2022. At the moment, one euro is worth around 200.482 escudos. The situation in Belgium is particular, whose franc is no longer convertible as regards currencies, while it still is for banknotesand (around there are around 428 million euros). Same goes for Austria and its old shillings.
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