Expats to be 'rescued' from Spain and Portugal!!!!

No,all I am saying is that what you at first read as the word worthless,could of been meant as the words worth-less.i was only pointing out that if Greece was no longer in the Eurozone,the currency that was printed for it would no longer be valid in the Eurozone,as they would not be a member country,and then if you had Euro Currency with the greek prefice or symbol,they would only be exchanged into the new Greek currency which ever name they chose to use.at the rate the currency is devalued to.

I am not saying this is my opinion,but an opinion that has been given to me by other people,just as you and others have given me a different opinion.

What i am trying to do is to be convinced  either way,In point, if I think the opinion i have just printed is the correct one

What will I do,Answer would be to save all German Euronotes.

Yeah. A euro is a euro, German ones aren´t worth more than French ones or Spanish ones or Greek ones - as I said before that would be idiotic. The euro is a portable currency, it has been designed so that notes and coins from all the members can slosh about around Europe - if one member leaves it doesn´t render the notes or coins useless. The fact that the Greeks may decide that the euro is no longer legal tender in Greece is not going to make the Greek notes and coins that are in circulation in the rest of Europe worthless or worth less. Why would it?

What I read was that someone was giving advice to change up notes that had a certain prefix, which I think is hilarious. 

 hi scout

YA GORRA LARF

MUST CHECK THE RATE FOR MY VAST AMOUNT OF MONOPOLY MONEY AND OLD BUTTONS

 So why are some German shops refusing to accept Greek euros, & people that live in Greece not accepting large demonination Greek  euro notes in transactions? I don't know, do you think that Greece is only alowed to print money that they have "back up" for?

 ITS ALL BACKED BY THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK SEEMS TO BE THE OLD SCARE MONGERING AGAIN REMINDS ME OF THE MILLENIUM BUG FIASCO BACK IN 1999/2000

The petrol station near me has never accepted large denomination notes irresepective of the prefix, lots of shops don´t. If you´re a small shop and you get fed a fake 500€ note it could wipe out your profit margin for a fortnight. That will be as true in Greece as anywhere else. As the large denomination notes aren´t as readily accepted it would need to be changed up in a bank, perhaps by depositing it an account it would mean declaring it, and we know how fond of declaring earnings the Greeks are.

If German shops are checking coins and notes for serial numbers and Greek markings they must be seriously misinformed. The euro has enough problems at the moment, the ECB would never add fuel to the fire by suddenly withdrawing currency without prior warning. Can you imagine the pandemonium in Italy if that happened and the entire country refused to accept notes with the letter "S" in the serial number? If HM Queen died tonight, your pound coins and notes and stamps with her head on would still work tomorrow. The euro isn´t backed up by anything, nobody knows exactly how much is in circulation, how much is lost down sofas, destroyed in house fires, lost etc etc. Countries can join, countries may leave, a euro is a euro and its value is fixed by the market.

Most euro notes have the signature Jean-Claude Trichet on them, but Mario Draghi is now the President of the ECB, that doesn´t mean the notes with the previous president´s signature are now useless.

As lostagain says, it´s like Y2K - people panic buying food, no-one´s microwave would work on the 1st Jan, planes were going to be falling out of the sky...

So if anyone is off-loading euro notes with a "Y" serial number I would be prepared to offer 75% of the face value to give them peace of mind.

Msg me :)

Scout, what you say makes sense up to a point, but if you're right can you explain why the Euro notes show the country of origin ?

Greece are reneging on their debt and there seems an impasse with the IIF.  I don't think anyone can be sure what happens next, but if you can keep your offer open for a month or two you might have a few customers.

 MY NEIGHBOUR JUST LEFT ME HUGE SACK OF ORANGES TANGERINES AND LEMONS AM WONDERING IF I CAN USE THEM TO SET UP A HEDGE FUND IN CASE THE WORST HAPPENS

THEN AGAIN ALL THAT VITAMIN C SHOULD STOP ME GETTING ONE OF THOSE

NASTY CHILLS GRANNY ALWAYS WARNED ME ABOUT

Acer, the VIN code on my car also has digits that represent the country of origin. I imagine if bank notes are produced that for some reason don´t meet specific criteria, or wont work in machines, or lack the watermark, it makes it easier to trace where they came from. Luxemburg doesn´t print its own notes, so it simply uses the prefix of the country that does print its notes. Slovenia has its own letter reserved but so far has used notes manufactured in other states.

Physical printed and minted cash makes up the tiniest fraction of actual money, and they can run the presses whenever the notes get tatty or in short supply. I think the trouble is people have it fixed in their head that a 10€ note is actually worth 10€, it´s not, it´s just a piece of paper. The ECB has assigned it a value which is universally accepted. The picture / serial number / signature is irrelevant.

 DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU SCOUT BUT MY BRAIN HURTS NOW

Well have a nice lie down lostagain. 

One of the essentials of a meaningful discussion is that it is not compulsory that people share the same opinion.  None of us know, but hoping for the best, whilst preparing for the worst makes sense to me.

 THING IS THIS IS HARDLEY A MEANINGFUL DISCUSSION

 TO HAVE OPINIONS YOU NEED FACTS 

SADLEY TOTALLY ABSENT FROM THIS THREAD

Totally agree Acer. Hoping for the best whilst preparing for the worst is always worth doing in uncertain times. However, checking the serial numbers on a bank note when the value of my house has halved over the past 3 years does seem like overkill on the "preparedness" front :)  

I wasn't the 1st person to post about the prefix on Euro notes but I did post the link to the full prefix table.

The notes issued when the Euro was launched were issued by each country in direct exchange at the agreed fixed rate for the original currency. Their was no pre nuptual agreement so we can't be certain but if Greece withdraw or are forced out of the Euro it is possible "their" Euros will be separated from the other country's and withdrawn. I suppose it is also possible that they will simply withdraw the amount that Greece put in from circulation without regard to the serial numbers. The point is this is all uncharted waters. The Euro is not a single currency in the way the US$ is. It is actually just the old exchange rate mechanism with each country behaving as if they were using their own currency but at a fixed exchange rate so that it could be converted to Euros and traded freely.

We will have to wait and see what happens. There are people who, for a variety of reasons, hold sizeable amounts of Euros in cash. If I was one of them I would be getting rid of my Greek notes. Ironically 1 reason why some people have a Euro cash stash is because they believe (and I think this IS right) that if Spain leaves the Euro any money on deposit in a Spanish bank will be converted back to peasatas and suffer an immediate substantial devaluation.

Sorry lostagain this is based on hard fact but there are also "known unknowns" that we each have to form a judgement about

Greece didn´t put anything in. No country put anything in. Germany didn´t buy its first batch of euros with Dm, France didn´t buy its first lot with francs. This is the point that seems to be getting missed here. The central banks of the individual nations gave up their right to print money, to set exchange rates etc and the ECB took over that role.

Again, the notes and the coins are worth nothing themselves. As I mentioned earlier, Luxemburg does not have a letter assigned to it, so the ECB could effectively say "Right, Greece is out so from today Luxemburg´s letter is "Y""

Would that be OK? Not that it would make a bit of difference. 

The central banks of the individual nations gave up their right to print money, to set exchange rates etc and the ECB took over that role. - with that I agree.

For the rest we'll agree to differ

Google "fiat currency" - when you realise that the paper and coinage are worthless in themselves, and don´t represent gold bullion stashed away in a vault or any other tangible asset, it becomes crystal clear why a letter on a note is not going to suddenly render it useless. 

 well done dav munster you found a fact still none of this affects me nor probably any of us

anyway it seems the euro has entered some kind of twighlight zone

u said it dont put your money in a spanish bank

never thought of that one

or did i hmmm