There’s a lot to be said for the Euro: no more losing value when crossing borders within the euro-zone: day trips from Berlin to Paris don’t incur an inherent exchange penalty.
On the downside, euro banknotes are designed to be non-specific and boring (although the bridges were subsequently constructed, see Spijkenisse).
My favorite pre-euro banknotes were the Dutch guilders, more specifically the 50 Guilder note, which featured sunflowers (complete with a bee on the front).
Worth about 11.69€ today, this is a souvenir that I have sitting on the shelf behind my couch in the living room. Whenever I see it, I am taken back to my earliest European adventures in the Netherlands, the friends I met there, the time I asked for 50 guilders worth of roses instead of asking for 12 – I got more roses than I could carry!
I fully love the euro, but its member countries lose the ability promote local culture and ideals.
During the Covid-19 crisis, I am going to try and make a point of writing a blog post about an object in my home.
We’ll see how long this lasts.
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