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Why can't US metrication be this easy?
John
Sunday, 10 February, 2002, 14:40 GMT
Irish pound consigned to history
The last Irish punts are being shredded and
dumped The Irish pound, the punt, ceased to exist as a working
currency at midnight on Saturday.
Millions of punts are being destroyed at the top security printers where the euro notes are being printed. They are being collected, shredded, pulverised and then turned into paper briquettes. The Irish Central Bank estimates that 85% of all punts have now been through this process.
The briquettes, which were once worth IR�20,000 each were given to the poor as fuel in the past. But the last punts in the system are being dumped on landfill sites. Meanwhile, the National Museum at Collins Barracks in Dublin is showing an exhibition of old Irish notes and coins. It has become a place of pilgrimage for those who are sad to see the birth of the euro and the death of the punt. People visiting the exhibition had mixed views about the introduction of the euro. One woman said: "I don't think I'll get used to it - I don't seem to know how much money I have in my purse! Another added: "We miss it, you felt you had more money, there's too much small change." However, another woman said: "I won't be shedding any tears for the punt as long as I have enough Euro to get along."
It is estimated that by the end of the first week of the new year more than 80% of all transactions were in euro. Philip Hamell of the Irish Euro Changeover Board said: "Our social welfare system is paid weekly in cash in many cases and that gave us an immediate pump of euro cash into the economy. "Also, Irish people go fairly frequently to the ATM machine." Irish Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy said the changeover had gone smoothly. "People just decided to adopt a practical approach, and the first week they just decided to get rid of all Irish money and deal in euro from then on to stop confusion," he said. Anybody who has not yet changed their remaining punts into euro can still do so at a bank, although the punt is no longer legal tender in shops. The euro was introduced to the Republic of Ireland an 11 other European Union countries on 1 January. Northern Ireland, as part of the UK, has not adopted the currency. However many businesses in areas bordering the Irish Republic - and in the cities of Belfast and Londonderry - have been accepting pounds sterling, punts and euros.
Punt passes away quietly
Dubliners shed no tears at the loss of their
currency By BBC Dublin Correspondent James Helm
The Irish pound ceased to be legal tender from midnight on Saturday as Ireland became the second country within the eurozone - after the Netherlands - to ditch its old notes and coins. The dual currency period of euros and the pound has now ended, although banks will continue to swap old notes for new. Inside the high security complex of the Central Bank of Ireland's Currency Centre south of Dublin, the shredding machines have been busy.
Millions of notes are being placed on conveyor belts, which tip them down into the shredders. Currency scrapheap Neat brickettes of finely chopped money pop out the other end - thousands of Irish pounds reduced to waste.
From the centre, most of the waste is taken away to landfill sites. For the pound, or punt in Irish, this is farewell. The modern Irish pound arrived in 1928. Now, in 2002, it has already largely disappeared, replaced by the euro. At midnight on 9 February, it ceased to be legal tender, and the "dual circulation period" which began on 1 January ended. It went out out with more of a whimper than a bang. Little nostalgia On 2 January, when stores re-opened in Dublin after the New Year break, they had to cope not only with the sales rush, but the arrival of the new currency, the euro. We went to St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre in the middle of Dublin and were struck by the calmness of shop staff and customers in dealing with the new currency.
Free currency converters were even handed out to help shoppers. More than a month on, people I spoke to there this week were showing the same sort of pragmatism towards the end of the punt. A man in his early 20s told me he had forgotten about the Irish currency after just a few days of the euro, and had not even registered that it would soon cease to be legal tender. An elderly woman said she was not sad about saying goodbye to the Irish pound, joking that her own money is always disappearing too, whatever the currency. Sentimentality is in short supply. Every taxi driver I have asked about the changeover seems to shrug and say something along the lines of: "The new money's here, so let's get on with it." Smooth transition There is satisfaction here that the changeover has gone so well. Around 80% of the country's punts had been handed over here by the end of week one of the euro. The switch was run by the Euro Changeover Board, which got its message across through an advertising blitz on TV, radio & in newspapers. In due course, all �3bn worth of Irish notes and coins will either be destroyed or will become souvenirs and museum pieces. |
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