Coins in sachets: citizens remember the changeover to the euro

Created: 12/31/2021, 8:00 PM

By: Peter Borchers

Banker Stefan Holzheu from Ambach took his photo starter kit from the locker.

© Hans Lippert

The Euro starter kits were released on January 1st, 2002.

A bag contained 10.23 euros.

Many Germans secured one of these coin sets at the time.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - The euro has actually been around since 1999. At that time, the new EU currency replaced the venerable German mark for booking purposes. It didn't get exciting for Otto Barbezahler until three years later: From January 1, 2002, hard euro and cent coins jingled in their wallets - in line with the European concept of unity. To begin with, most EU countries issued so-called, albeit very different, starter kits to their citizens. Anyone who put 20 marks on the counter of their bank in Germany received in return a plastic bag with euro coins of all types and sizes worth 10.23 euros. The exchange rate: 1 euro was equivalent to 1.95583 D-Marks. Geniuses in numbers now quickly calculate that the equivalent of the sachet was actually exactly 20.01 marks. The one penny? The state gave it to us.

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Most of the starter kits soon became part of payment transactions.

Some, however, disappeared in safes, jewelery boxes or in drawers - as memories or with the associated hope of making a mess in the distant future.

Well, this wish will not come true for owners of a German kit.

However, if you own an intact sachet from the Vatican Bank or a Monegasque financial institution, you have better cards: those coin packets issued by these dwarf states are now traded for a few hundred euros on collectors' markets.

In general, the smaller the member state and the smaller the number of starter kits, the greater the chance of a good increase in value.

Nice memory: Peter Pirchmoser from Greiling with his first euros. © Hias Krinner

For Stefan Holzheu it “made sense” to get a kit. He had just finished his apprenticeship at a bank. As a man from the trade, the Ambacher could imagine that this little bag would never achieve great value, "I just bought it as a souvenir". And as such, it is definitely valuable for wood hay: He deposited it in a locker, "in its original condition, of course". The 41-year-old remembers the change very well: “I was doing my community service back then. For the cash changeover, we bankers were asked whether we would return to the bank at the turn of the year and help out. ”Which he did at the time. Incidentally, Holzheu does not believe that the euro became the expensive euro that was often quoted later, even if it is difficult to assess this precisely. "Since we don't knowThere is no comparison of how things would have developed with the D-Mark. But there was already inflation back then. Even with the mark, a lot would have become more expensive. "

Peter Pirchmoser was 14 years old at the time of the currency changeover and bought three kits.

He opened one and took it straight away, said Greilinger, but he picked up the others.

"At the time I thought that in 50 years' time, when I retire, they might be worth something." Just as Pirchmoser got them from the bank at the time, they are still at home with him.

Even if the kits should never be very valuable, they are “a nice reminder” of a significant event.

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Bettina Koch obtained the starter kits from a kind of group dynamic. “Everyone did that back then, so I bought one too, so I had a few euros in my pocket.” The Franconian native never actually opened the parcel, “because then you can withdraw money from the bank relatively quickly The little bags with the coins are now in the closet at her home in Gaißach, says the 45-year-old, “maybe I'll give them to my children one day”.

Delicatessen dealer Volker Reeh got around 15 starter kits for a business reason: "At that time, trading had the function of changing money, and at first there was only hard money." You only got rolls of money two or three days before the changeover. "Then we did Taken D-Mark and had to give the change in euros. ”The time was exciting, remembers the Geretsrieder. "We had to move the tills, bought euros from the bank at short notice and carried the D-Mark back." Reeh himself still has a starter kit. For his children, who were born in 1988 and 1990, Reeh also “kept a pack”. Incidentally, he also gave his offspring a series of D-Mark notes from 5 to 100. "They are immortalized in a picture frame and are probably hanging on the toilet",he says and laughs.

Money distributor: As a delicatessen dealer, Volker Reeh brought the new coins to the people.

© Hans Lippert

Monika Botzenmayer's motivation to get the first euros in a bag was “my little passion for collecting”.

The Eurasburger would not call herself a serious numismatist, but at that time she also secured the “Goldmark”, a commemorative issue.

And the starter kit is “simply part of the package” for the currency conversion department.

By the way, the 62-year-old “still converts from euros to marks today”, and she thinks “that retailers took advantage of the change back then to raise prices.

As a housewife, I've always calculated all my life. ”The roast pork in the inn cost 9.80 marks, not much later 9.80 euros.

That is a fact.

For a passionate numismatist, the currency conversion had its own charm. Andreas Chlebisz has been collecting coins since he was a child, a family friend introduced the native of Upper Silesia to this hobby. “It all started with simple coins,” recalls the 60-year-old who lives in Bad Tölz. Today “special issues, national and circulation coins” are Chlebisz's specialty. He counts the prettiest thalers in euros and cents from his native country. “Some Polish silver coins are really very, very beautiful.” For the 60-year-old, it was still “a matter of honor” to buy four or five starter kits. "I wanted to know how these new coins feel in my hand." He still has two intact sachets,including one with 33 coins from the Austrian National Bank at the then equivalent of 200 schillings, the equivalent of 14.54 euros. This is now traded on various auction platforms for around ten euros more. But unfortunately the Austria version has not yet become a Teuro starter set.

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