Support for euro in doubt as Germans reject Latin bloc notes

www.telegraph.co.uk...

It was a rumor, now some facts :

Ordinary Germans have begun to reject euro bank notes with serial numbers from Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, raising concerns that public support for monetary union may be waning in the eurozone's anchor country.

Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper says bankers have detected a curious pattern where customers are withdrawing cash directly from branches, screening the notes to determine the origin of issue. They ask for paper from the southern states to be exchanged for German notes.

Each country prints its own notes according to its economic weight, under strict guidelines from the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. The German notes have an "X"' at the start of the serial numbers, showing that they come from the Bundesdruckerei in Berlin.

Italian notes have an "S" from the Instituto Poligrafico in Rome, and Spanish notes have a "V" from the Fabrica Nacional de Moneda in Madrid. The notes are entirely interchangeable and circulate freely through the eurozone and, indeed, beyond.

People clearly suspect that southern notes may lose value in a crisis, or if the eurozone breaks apart. This is what happened in the US in the Jackson era of the 1840s when dollar notes from different regions traded at different values.

"The scurrilous idea behind this is that if the eurozone should succumb to growing divergences, then it is best to cling to most stable countries," said the Handelsblatt.

"There are no grounds for panic. The Italian state is not Bear Stearns," it said.

Germans appear to be responding to a mix of concerns. Many own property in Spain or Portugal and have become aware of the Iberian housing slump.

A spate of news articles in the German press has begun to highlight the economic rift between the North and South of eurozone.

There is criticism of comments from Italian, Spanish, and French politicians that threaten the independence of the ECB, viewed as sacrosanct in Germany.

But the key concern appears to be price stability. Germany's wholesale inflation rate reached 8.1pc in May, the highest level in 26 years.

The cost of bread, milk and other staples has rocketed, adding to the sense that prices are spiralling out of control. Ordinary people are blaming the new currency - the "Teuro" - a pun on expensive - for their travails in the supermarket, even though the recent spike in farm goods and energy prices has nothing to do with monetary union.

Inflation touches a very sensitive nerve in Germany. Holger Schmeiding, from Bank of America, said the country had suffered two traumatic sets of inflation in living memory, first in Weimar in 1923 and then in 1948.

"People suffered a 90pc haircut on financial assets in the currency reform of 1948. The inflationary effects of two world wars were catastrophic," he said.

A group of leading German professors warned at the outset of EMU that the euro would tend to be weaker than old Deutsche Mark, and that it would fuel inflation over time. German citizens were never given a vote on the abolition of the D-Mark, which had become a symbol of Germany's rebirth after the war.

Many have kept a stash of D-Marks hidden in mattresses to this day. A recent IPOS poll showed that 59pc of Germany now had serious doubts about the euro.

reply to post by ickylevel





my reply from you thread yesterday, RUMOR; Germany to give up Euro?

posted on 12-5-2010 @ 08:18


i thought i read, some hours ago now, that the Germans would be showing new Euro monies

i took it as there being a definite division in the Northern EU currency and the Southern EU currencies.

the source (which excapes me at this time) was neither of the sources that are cited in this thread ~zerohedge~ or ~financial...~

if it become critical i will go back & review todays history of sites visited,
but, the bottom line, is that i understood that new, distinct, Euros are being printed and to be released into circulation on the 15th? or something like that...
i didn't pay a real analytical eye on the news because it did not say a return to the DeutschMark, but new distinct Euro notes

[edit on 12-5-2010 by St Udio]

low-profile me, didn't even get a notice or star or rebuke that i was squelching a conspiracy theory...
but (yay me)

here is one link to better understanding the EURO notes
en.wikipedia.org...

So that 5 Euro note ive got left over from my last holiday will still be worth something since the code starts with an 'X'.....?

I dont see how they can break it down like that just because it was printed else-where.


It'll end with tears.

So... is this the beginning of a new wave of National Socialism? (Just a question for discussion, not implying AT ALL that Germans are Nazis or anything. I like Germans!!) But it seems like a new beginning that has historical implications.

Originally posted by Esrom Escutcheon Esquire
So that 5 Euro note ive got left over from my last holiday will still be worth something since the code starts with an 'X'.....?

I dont see how they can break it down like that just because it was printed else-where.


It'll end with tears.

I dunno dude, I heard this story almost a year ago and it was just as unbelievable then..

The Telegraph is notoriously Eurosceptic so I personally don't listen to it in regards its reporting on the EU.. It is extremely bias..

I mean, it doesn't even give an example of who is not accepting these notes..

Ridiculous. A Euro note is a euro note, no matter where it comes from. It has the same monetary value as every other euro note. Thats a new form of economic "racism" and higly problematic. How stupid can people be when it comes to money?

Get rid of that # anyway, who needs money?

People where is this stuff all coming from about people not wanting the european union now.

Do you think someone is trying to sir up trouble in the eu for all this. Probably london and new york as per usual.

This is old stuff, it's been circulating for over 2 months and it's probably bs.

Originally posted by Dynamitrios
How stupid can people be when it comes to money?

Pretty dumb apparently.

Just look at the US.

We let a cartel of private banks establish control over the supply of money and interest rates.

Then we all stand around with our thumbs up our butts as they devalue the currency 1600% since taking control - on top of creating two major economic depressions and confiscating the private supply of gold.

Talk about stupid - America takes the cake.