I'm a simple emigrant and I like euros

For a fairly long time in my life, I used only three currencies: rubles, Mexican pesos, and euros. Rubles seemed beautiful to me, but I couldn't understand why they don't always fit into wallets. Mexican pesos also seemed pretty to me, and they turned out to be waterproof! Then I moved to Germany, realized that pesos are very similar in style to euro banknotes, and I immediately fell in love with the 20-euro note. Although psychologically it’s still unusual to me that euros and rubles differ by an order of magnitude, and it’s still easier for me to spend 100 euros than 10,000 rubles. Every time I marvel anew when I remember that the euro currency appeared in Germany only 23 years ago. Back then, the euro displaced the German marks at a rate of about 1 to 2. A month before the official introduction, the German government released for sale more than 53 million euro Starter Sets. Such a set in the photo: it contained euro coins of all denominations. In total it was 10.23 €, and you could buy it for 20 German marks. That would have been easier and faster for residents to get used to the new currency of circulation. I asked a couple of friends about this starter pack. One friend said he remembers receiving such a pack and immediately going to the skating rink and buying himself a ticket for his first euros. And around that time he also bought Pringles, apparently, for as little as one euro. For you to understand, Pringles now cost two euros. Another said that she doesn’t remember the starter pack, but recalls that euros initially seemed toy-like. And there was a street pancake stall in her neighborhood. So at one point the prices there changed: instead of the letters DM next to the price in digits, the euro sign appeared, right on top of the previous inscription. And as I already said, the rate was about 1 to 2, meaning the price of a pancake doubled in one second. Not all promotions achieve such a result. I recently visited the German Federal Bank and saw that there are still announcements at the entrance about exchanging German marks for euros; the rate remains roughly two to one. By the way, in the summer I was at the Bundesbank’s Open Day and saw halls that are usually not accessible to ordinary mortals. Let me know in the comments if you want to read about the interiors inside and see photos! #history #money