Au revoir to the franc
February 17, 2012
Ten years after the introduction of euro notes and coins in the eurozone, the Bank of France gave French savers a final deadline to exchange leftover franc notes, causing long queues in front of branches of France's central bank across the country.
Advertisements in the French media had prepared people for the deadline. People said they found notes in places like drawers or a box of foreign currency or even in an old pair of trousers that no longer fit.
"I'm a procrastinator - may God forgive me," opera singer Euken Ostolaza told the AFP news agency as he queued in Paris.
The euro was introduced to consumers in 2002 and Franc coins and older notes were only exchangeable until 2005. But newer notes were given the longer grace period until Friday, at an exchange rate of 15.24 euros for 100 francs.
Estimates suggest that at the end of 2010 there were still 50 million franc notes at large, worth the equivalent of 602 million euros ($792 million).
The central bank believes that, despite the efforts to get people to exchange their francs for euros, around half a billion euros worth of old franc notes will remain in French drawers, under floorboards, in boxes or wherever else people have hidden or forgotten about them.
Italy has also put an end to the exchangeability of its former currency, the lira, for euros, Finland is to follow suit on February 29 and Greece on March 1. The Dutch can hold on to their old guilders until 2032. Germany has not set a deadline.
ng/db (AP, AFP)