Hanging on

Peseta notes and coins worth the equivalent 1.83 billion euros are still outstanding almost five years after the introduction of the Euro according to data from the Bank of Spain. That is enough to buy 13,000 homes worth 140,000€ each.

Between January and September the central bank exchanged pesetas worth Euro 29 million, although it is thought much of the outstanding cash will never to be changed.

Spaniards obviously loved their old currency which gave Spain its unique identity and so want to hang on to it. I sincerely hope there doesn't come a time when banks won't exchange peseta notes leaving these people with worthless pieces of paper.

Actually when you speak to Spaniards about the price of things, many will convert from Euros to pesetas so they can better understand what they are dealing with. Most items in shops still have the price in pesetas alongside the Euro price and banks show transactions in both currencies.

For us Brits dealing with the Euro is much easier. After all we had to think in a new currency anyway and the numbers in Euros are much easier to handle than pesetas.