Thanks Richard. This is interesting. It made me check for Belgium, and indeed, the notes can still be exchanged. In Belgium it is also possible to exchange old notes, but not old coins. ( http://www.nbb.be/pub/faq/R2Q01.htm?l=fr ) In some other countries, such as Germany or Spain, there is no limit to the exchange of coins and notes. Comparison table : http://www.ecb.int/euro/exchange/html/index.en.html I imagine this can open up an opportunity in some of these countries to encourage people to use their old notes to support through consumption, or to invest, in localized economics, eventually community empowered / managed / operated / owned businesses ( cooperatives ) ? Apparently, it is estimated at an equivalent of 1,8 Billion Euros, in pesetas, for Spain. How much would it be for Germany, or Belgium ? /// http://www.ecb.int/euro/exchange/html/index.en.html Some central banks have set a time limit for the exchange of national banknotes and coinsCountryExchange of banknotes untilExchange of coins until Belgiumunlimited31 December 2004GermanyunlimitedunlimitedEstoniaunlimited unlimitedIrelandunlimitedunlimitedGreece1 March 20121 March 2004Spain unlimitedunlimitedFrance17 February 201217 February 2005Italy6 December 20116 December 2011Cyprus31 December 201731 December 2009Luxembourgunlimited31 December 2004Malta31 January 20181 February 2010The Netherlands (1)1 January 20321 January 2007AustriaunlimitedunlimitedPortugal28 February 202231 December 2002Sloveniaunlimited31 December 2016Slovakiaunlimited31 December 2013Finland29 February 201229 February 2012 (1) De Nederlandsche Bank will not exchange guilders in every case. Guilders obtained from commercial activities after 27 January 2002 will no longer be exchanged. For more information, please see the website of De Nederlandsche Bank. <http://www.dnb.nl/> On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 9:59 AM, Richard Heider <[email protected]>wrote:

In Germany you can also still exchange Deutsch Mark into Euro. The service is just not offered by commercial banks anymore. If you do to the "Bundesbank" directly, there should be no problem. Why would there be? The old currency has effectively been a Euro since the day they fixed the exchange rates, which was quite some time before the introduction of the Euro banknotes.

Granted, this was psychologically a very clever step. The whole banking and all the accounting systems were converted, when people still had the FEELING that they are using Deutsche Mark, Pesetas, Lira, etc ... just that they weren't

Regards Richard.

Am 15. Februar 2012 14:15 schrieb Dante-Gabryell Monson < [email protected]>:

Thanks Richard for your article,

...

what is interesting for me in this case, in comparison with other former currencies, is that the peseta's can still be exchanged for euros, as there is no deadline from the spanish national bank to exchange them.

Hence it does not require any new law to be voted, to enable this alternative currency.

Yet your article joins what I would like to see realized : enabling a more conscious choice for localized economics, by using this very specific situation in SPain with its old currency, to promote the use of alternative currencies, such as mutual credit , regio/freigeld currencies, etc

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 4:51 AM, Richard Heider <[email protected]>wrote:

...

I wrote an article about this scenario in the context of Greece a while ago. Maybe it is of some interest: "New Options In Dealing With The Euro Crisis" http://en.richard-heider.de/wp/?p=7

About the pesetas: How is the peseta not a Euro printed on different paper? So what people are doing is spend horded money and for emotional reasons not convert it into the new paper. But I agree - this could be used as momentum to establish a New Peseta that is actually based on a different concept or at least has a demurrage.

Regards Richard

Am 15. Februar 2012 03:22 schrieb Dante-Gabryell Monson < [email protected]>:

...

This sounds ideal for the set up and financing of "Phyles"<http://p2pfoundation.net/Phyles> , by encouraging the remaining 1,7 Billion Euros worth of Peseta's to be invested and exchanged for regional currencies based on a Freigeld/Regio <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freigeld> architecture ?

I imagine collaboration with existing cooperative approaches, enabling the set up and development of local businesses and community owned , operated and managed businesses, for their own consumption.

It may even be combined with Landreform<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reform> towards Freiland ( possibly cooperative based ? ), especially in reclaimed ( abandoned ) spanish villages,

or in municipalities such as Marinaleda ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinaleda,_Spain

//

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiwirtschaft

*Freiland<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Freiland&action=edit&redlink=1> * (*free land*)

- All land is owned by public institutions and can only be rented, not purchased (*see also Henry George<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_George> *).

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 10:07 PM, Dante-Gabryell Monson < [email protected]> wrote:

...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2100565/Spanish-village-goes-peseta-...

*"Spanish village goes back to peseta: Residents turn to old money they'd held on to"* * * - Thirty businesses have started using old currency - Spain estimated to have saved 1.7bn euros in pesetas

*"unlike other eurozone countries, pesetas can still be exchanged for euros at the Bank of Spain in Madrid where a deadline for turning in old money was never set."* * * * * note : Thanks to Topi for suggesting the article

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