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BOO MINIM

3rd January 2002, Page 37
3rd January 2002
Page 37
Page 37, 3rd January 2002 — BOO MINIM
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There are seven different notes: 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 euros. (If anyone tries to give you a 1,000 euro note, watch out! This denomination doesn't exist, so it will be a forgery.) The five-euro (( 5) note is grey, the CIO is red, and the others are blue, orange, green, yellow and mauve respectively.

There are eight denominations:1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, t 1 and but there will be 96 coins altogether—eight for each country.

Each coin will have one face common to the whole euro area, and one that is unique to the issuing country. Of course, you can spend any coin anywhere in the euro zone.

SPOTTING FORGERIES

It should be easy to tell IT someone has given you a forged note or coin. The euro coins are made of a special bimetallic alloy so they are hard to counterfeit, and euro banknotes have a "raised" print with a unique feel, as well as a highly sophisticated hologram and a magnetic strip. To see these, look at the note, tilt it and hold it up to the light, and you'll see the watermark, the security thread and the see-through register. All three features can be seen from both sides of genuine notes.

CHECKING YOU'VE GOT 111E MINI! MONEY

Until you get to know the colours and denominations, how can you make sure that somebody hasn't given you the wrong amount? There's one easy rule: the bigger the note, the higher its value. Look at the design, too. The new notes show doors, bridges and gateways ranging in style from Roman to modern. The more modern the design, the more the note is worth.

ROUNDING OFF

Prices could be rounded upwards. You can do a quick conversion to check that you haven't been had. There is a currency converter linked up to the European Central Bank's website (see left); or use a pocket euro calculator (on sale all over Europe). A price in francs, for instance, is converted to euros correct to several decimal places. If the third figure after the decimal point is five or above, the price is rounded up to the nearest cent; if it is between 0 and 1, the price is rounded down.

GETTING IT RIGHT: A QUESTION OF LANGUAGE

The plural of euro is euros, although the singular is widely used, and it doesn't have a capital letter. On the banknotes euro is written without an "s" since the natio nal languages form their phirals in different ways. The European Central Bank acronym appears on the notes in the national forms, BCE, ECB, E2B, EKT and EKP, together with the European flag and a stylised map of Europe.

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Organisations: European Central Bank

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