Euro's not fungible

[jubalix]

I never realised until today, that the printed Euro was not fungible, eg the first letter of a Euro at least show which country it is for. This means Greece Euro can be devalued in a day to worthlessness.

It seems the Euro was set up to fail or at least with easily implemented mechanisms to carve out remember quickly.

I would be getting my "money" out of EURO or at least Greek Euros ASAP.

[chennan]

I don't think so as long as the issuing power of Euro is controlled by the ECB. So all of the banks in European are treating the same status for different Euro. So is the merchants! What is your intention of creating panic here?

[jubalix]

I don't think so as long as the issuing power of Euro is controlled by the ECB. So all of the banks in European are treating the same status for different Euro. So is the merchants! What is your intention of creating panic here?

They print a Y infront of the serial number of Greek Euros and X-in front of the serial number for german Euro's.

This is by design of the central bank.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/11691232/I-am-going-on-holiday-to-Greece-should-I-avoid-Greek-euros.html

I am not 'creating panic' just stating it as it is, and making a personal comment after that.

[H.W.Z]

I don't think so as long as the issuing power of Euro is controlled by the ECB. So all of the banks in European are treating the same status for different Euro. So is the merchants! What is your intention of creating panic here?

They print a Y infront of the serial number of Greek Euros and X-in front of the serial number for german Euro's.

This is by design of the central bank.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/11691232/I-am-going-on-holiday-to-Greece-should-I-avoid-Greek-euros.html

I am not 'creating panic' just stating it as it is, and making a personal comment after that.

It is a free forum. You can talk anything in your mind as long as it is not spamming and insulting others. Probably you can create a poll to see how many of users here agree with you, or just your personal idea?

[jubalix]

I don't think so as long as the issuing power of Euro is controlled by the ECB. So all of the banks in European are treating the same status for different Euro. So is the merchants! What is your intention of creating panic here?

They print a Y infront of the serial number of Greek Euros and X-in front of the serial number for german Euro's.

This is by design of the central bank.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/11691232/I-am-going-on-holiday-to-Greece-should-I-avoid-Greek-euros.html

I am not 'creating panic' just stating it as it is, and making a personal comment after that.

It is a free forum. You can talk anything in your mind as long as it is not spamming and insulting others. Probably you can create a poll to see how many of users here agree with you, or just your personal idea?

Given that's they way they print it and its confirmed as a mechanism to remove legitimacy....its not a vote or personal idea in relation that it's not fungible, the personal view was as too the removal of any money I had from there which is a personal view.

[dserrano5]

I don't think so as long as the issuing power of Euro is controlled by the ECB. So all of the banks in European are treating the same status for different Euro. So is the merchants! What is your intention of creating panic here?

They print a Y infront of the serial number of Greek Euros and X-in front of the serial number for german Euro's.

Yes, and all notes are equally valid across the continent. Y-notes aren't going to lose their value.

Also, new design notes (of which right now we have 5 and 10 euro, with the 20s coming in later this year) no longer have this country letter—they just duplicate the printing letter that appears at the front (very small, difficult to spot).

[NorrisK]

Nothing to worry about.. They can't risk having people from other countries lose money because of this.. Besides, in what shop will they check if a note is from greece?

[Kprawn]

The Greeks will be kicked out before it pulls down the Euro.

Time will tell how much influence the Greeks would have, but for now, people are withdrawing Billions of Euro's and hiding it under beds.

The extention of the Bailouts has never been so important for the Greek people, as it is now. Lessons are to be learned from this, and I hope people are sitting up and taking notice, they might be next. 

[NUFCrichard]

I don't think so as long as the issuing power of Euro is controlled by the ECB. So all of the banks in European are treating the same status for different Euro. So is the merchants! What is your intention of creating panic here?

They print a Y infront of the serial number of Greek Euros and X-in front of the serial number for german Euro's.

This is by design of the central bank.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/11691232/I-am-going-on-holiday-to-Greece-should-I-avoid-Greek-euros.html

I am not 'creating panic' just stating it as it is, and making a personal comment after that.

I don't think you are creating panic, but I do think you are reading into it more than should be.
You can tell where a note was printed, yes. You can also tell when a coin/note was minted, but that doesn't mean that they will stop accepting all currency that is older than x years old.

If anything, it would be worth having Greek Euro, they might be collectors items one day!

[Amph]

i never liked how each euro nation has its own euro, it was supposed to be a global currency for every european countries, yeah i know that it does not matter, because they are issued from one entity only

but still it can confuse tourist

and greek euro is the same as other euro, is the ECB that print it, not each state separately

[NeuroticFish]

I never realised until today, that the printed Euro was not fungible, eg the first letter of a Euro at least show which country it is for. This means Greece Euro can be devalued in a day to worthlessness.

It seems the Euro was set up to fail or at least with easily implemented mechanisms to carve out remember quickly.

I would be getting my "money" out of EURO or at least Greek Euros ASAP.

Indeed, euros differ from country to country, from first letter to various other small things. I think that even some graphics are different.

But it doesn't matter. If one would devalue "Greece Euro" to nil, it would hurt people from all over Europe. Because the money travels. Because they've got mixed with the local money in all Euro countries. Especially Greek Euro, with a country with such high amount of tourists.

[bitnanigans]

i never liked how each euro nation has its own euro, it was supposed to be a global currency for every european countries, yeah i know that it does not matter, because they are issued from one entity only

but still it can confuse tourist

and greek euro is the same as other euro, is the ECB that print it, not each state separately

Wow, I never knew this. I actually thought the Euro notes were the same across all the countries. But I guess it makes sense having different cultural icons for each country on their notes.

I would assume it's possible to spend one country's Euro note in another Euro country, correct?

[Amph]

i never liked how each euro nation has its own euro, it was supposed to be a global currency for every european countries, yeah i know that it does not matter, because they are issued from one entity only

but still it can confuse tourist

and greek euro is the same as other euro, is the ECB that print it, not each state separately

Wow, I never knew this. I actually thought the Euro notes were the same across all the countries. But I guess it makes sense having different cultural icons for each country on their notes.

I would assume it's possible to spend one country's Euro note in another Euro country, correct?

i remember that when i was in france, i needed(actually my father did it, i was too young for such thing ) to exchange my euro with the local euro

but i'm not so sure about this anymore, because it happened at the launch of the euro or shortly thereafter, maybe they changed the rule now

[neoneros]

i never liked how each euro nation has its own euro, it was supposed to be a global currency for every european countries, yeah i know that it does not matter, because they are issued from one entity only

but still it can confuse tourist

and greek euro is the same as other euro, is the ECB that print it, not each state separately

Wow, I never knew this. I actually thought the Euro notes were the same across all the countries. But I guess it makes sense having different cultural icons for each country on their notes.

I would assume it's possible to spend one country's Euro note in another Euro country, correct?

i remember that when i was in france, i needed(actually my father did it, i was too young for such thing ) to exchange my euro with the local euro

but i'm not so sure about this anymore, because it happened at the launch of the euro or shortly thereafter, maybe they changed the rule now

That sounds like a story that is not quite correct, the euro was the euro right from the start, there was no way shops would prevent you from using the bills. Are you sure it was euro? And not the Francs? Was it before or after 2000?

I think it is very nice to see the foreign euro's ending up in my wallet, it makes it more interesting to know a coin has travelled all over europe to end up as change in my pocket

[acquafredda]

Come on let's be serious there's no difference among different euro notes.
Let's not be silly.
We can agree on the fact that it is only "paper" but please... come on!
 

[NeuroticFish]

i remember that when i was in france, i needed(actually my father did it, i was too young for such thing ) to exchange my euro with the local euro

but i'm not so sure about this anymore, because it happened at the launch of the euro or shortly thereafter, maybe they changed the rule now

No. He must have exchanged USD or DEM (German Mark) into Francs (FRF?). Euro was the same in France as in the rest of Euro zone since the start of Euro.

[EternalWingsofGod]

I'm not well versed in Euro's as it's not my main currency of use.
That said thanks for the tidbit of info there if you want a Euro make sure to check which marking it uses although as mentioned they both are valid units of currency.

(For fun it would be cool to have a bunch of Greek labelled Euros and then sell them for Bitcoin in the future if they lose their recognized value)
As a joke of sorts  

[dserrano5]

But it doesn't matter. If one would devalue "Greece Euro" to nil, it would hurt people from all over Europe. Because the money travels.

Notes not only travel: some years ago, a lot of 10s in Spain had the letter Y in them. They were printed in Greece, then taken to Spain and distributed in Spain. In fact, spanish 10s have been a rarity, even in Spain, since 2005 or so. This is called pooling and happens all over the place. Other examples of notes pooled to Spain are Dutch 5s and French 20s. Conversely, 50s are made mostly in Spain and pooled out to several countries.

All this about Y-notes losing value is bullshit.

[medUSA]

Greek Euro is still Euro, it will be accepted in any country within the EU. Think of all the Greek Euro flowed out of Greece into neighbouring countries the past years, and the unrest if there money suddenly becomes worthless? ECB is not stupid enough to put Euro legal tender to test like that.

If anything, it would be worth having Greek Euro, they might be collectors items one day!

This is one opportunistic idea!

[hua_hui]

Forget Euro. China's Yuan is funny as hell

Apparently, the Yuan has 2 versions. The mainland/domestic Yuan and the "international" Yuan. They think they can control capital easier this way.

What do you mean the 2 versions of Yuan? I never know they are different! China has a huge amount of trading surplus and GDP is over Japan, become the second largest economy. The influence of Yuan is increasing a lot! How come Yuan is different!