Economy in old currency

Currency>> Economic Crisis • Spain

 
Published: Thursday 31 March 2011

A town in northern Spain has decided to reintroduce the old Spanish currency, the peseta, alongside the euro to give the local economy a lift.

imageShopkeepers in Mugardos want anyone with forgotten stashes of the old cash at home to come and spend it. More than 60 shops in the small fishing town in Galicia are accepting the peseta again.

People are travelling to Mugardos from outside just to spend the old currency. One man had found a 10,000-peseta note at home and had no idea what to do with it. He is now the happy owner of a sandwich toaster.

Spain introduced the euro in January 2002. Spaniards then had another three months to exchange their old currency at any bank. That cash can still be converted but only at the Bank of Spain. The bank says peseta amounting to 1.7 billion euros of cash has still not been converted. That is the reserve the shopkeepers are hoping to tap and give a desperately needed boost to business.

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