Not such good news for the euro
Eurostat has been surveying those countries with the euro, and even the thick end of six years after its physical introduction, euroman and woman seems to be getting awfully confused by the coins. A rather poor 36% of them claim never to have to turn a coin to check on its value, whereas 8% have to do so on every occasion.
Here are the universal sides:
Not a thing of great beauty in my reckoning, although I am strongly in favour of coins and banknotes with maps on them.
The survey also noted the ability of users to detect euro coins with fake national sides, coins from other countries etc etc and while I would not expect the average Gaul or Spaniard to have seen that many Slovene euros, nevertheless it is pretty odd that only 48% of Portuguese could recognise a Spanish 50 cent coin, and frankly jaw dropping that only a little more than two-thirds of Spaniards could recognise their own coin. Anyone who fancies passing off fake euro coins would fare best in the Republic of Ireland and Italy - 27% spotted a fake. The Belgians came top with 56%, which is hardly impressive either.
If the purpose of the survey was to act as a trojan horse for scrapping national sides to euro coins (cynical? Me?) , the commissars found little support for it among those polled - 9%. The Luxembourgers are keenest on national sides - 82% deem it a good thing, while 31% of Italians do. What I found surprising, although I suspect there was a degree of giving the 'right' answer going on, is that the number one reason for supporting national euro coins was "that it is an expression of cultural diversity in Europe", at 65% to the 30% seeing it as a national symbol. 28% must be numismatists, judging that "more variety makes coins more interesting".
Meanwhile, hidden deep in the report is data on support for the euro overall - the Euro area average is 68%, with the peak 87% in the Republic of Ireland. Germany musters 66% support, Italy and Spain 64% and top / bottom of the class are the Hellenes at 49%.
Here are the universal sides:
Not a thing of great beauty in my reckoning, although I am strongly in favour of coins and banknotes with maps on them.
The survey also noted the ability of users to detect euro coins with fake national sides, coins from other countries etc etc and while I would not expect the average Gaul or Spaniard to have seen that many Slovene euros, nevertheless it is pretty odd that only 48% of Portuguese could recognise a Spanish 50 cent coin, and frankly jaw dropping that only a little more than two-thirds of Spaniards could recognise their own coin. Anyone who fancies passing off fake euro coins would fare best in the Republic of Ireland and Italy - 27% spotted a fake. The Belgians came top with 56%, which is hardly impressive either.
If the purpose of the survey was to act as a trojan horse for scrapping national sides to euro coins (cynical? Me?) , the commissars found little support for it among those polled - 9%. The Luxembourgers are keenest on national sides - 82% deem it a good thing, while 31% of Italians do. What I found surprising, although I suspect there was a degree of giving the 'right' answer going on, is that the number one reason for supporting national euro coins was "that it is an expression of cultural diversity in Europe", at 65% to the 30% seeing it as a national symbol. 28% must be numismatists, judging that "more variety makes coins more interesting".
Meanwhile, hidden deep in the report is data on support for the euro overall - the Euro area average is 68%, with the peak 87% in the Republic of Ireland. Germany musters 66% support, Italy and Spain 64% and top / bottom of the class are the Hellenes at 49%.
Labels: EU fun and games, surveys
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on Monday, October 15, 2007 at 9:12 am.
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Can you remove this post. I'm feeling sick!
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