Welcome, Latvia!

[ART]

[gragox]

Aiziet!

[ART]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3j0JvqHx9k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[melitikus]

welcome Latvia
those that find a Latvian euro coin and live outside Latvia please post here
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=55796" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[claudio vda]

Hello Latvija and welcome to the Euro Zone!

[starcapitan]

Ciao Latvia , happy that the Euro Zone joins you

[Ralf]

Welcome Latvia, would be nice to see a lot of new eurobilltrackers

[gragox]

I need a bigger wallet. Eurocoins are terribly huge compared to Lat coins.

2 cent coin is bigger than 1, 2, 5 and 50 santims coins (50 santims = 1.2 euros)...
5 cent coin is pretty much the same size as 20 santims and 1 lat coin

Previously my wallet could easily fit 10+ euro change in lats, now it is struggling with <5 euros.

[Ralf]

When you have 5 euro (in coins) in your wallet you have to change it in a

[gragox]

I guess I was just used to the fact that coins can in fact be handy and useful.. But, yeah, a would give a chance to track another note.

[melitikus]

I guess I was just used to the fact that coins can in fact be handy and useful.. But, yeah, a would give a chance to track another note.

same story with Malta, 1LM= €2.33 so with coins you could buy something - with the euro coins, you get lot of coins that are almost worthless
I hope that the 1c and 2c will be removed from circulation because they are really worthless and make my pockets heavy for nothing

[Dakkus]

So, I'm currently in Riga, arrived perhaps some five hours ago from Lithuania. Here's some input on how things are going regarding the new currency:
Having hitchhiked to some place to Ogres direction from Riga's downtown, I took a bus. After causing some confusion accidentally speaking to the driver mostly in Lithuanian and only partly in Latvian when trying to ask if the bus is going to the central station, I asked for the current price of a bus ticket. One euro, the driver said. I gave him two 50c coins, to which he replied "you must pay in euro". Apparently the spanish 50 c coins I had in my pocket and that happened to land on his "table" the national side up, were unrecognizable to him. I then took the 50 c coins back and gave him a 2 € coin (Portuguese) instead. He turned it around in his hand a couple of times, trying to figure what on Earth the piece of metal in his hand was, and then gave me five 20 c coins back as a change. And after a while, also remembere to print the actual ticket
You can imagine, this wasn't the quickest possible procedure

A while later, I ordered something to eat in a café at the outskirts of downtown, where tourists seldom end up. Since the products I bought cost altogether 4,05 €, I Paid with 20 € note and 5 c coin. The worker also had to look quite carefully at the coin to figure out its worth. Somehow all of this is kind of cute, although definitely understandable. I didn't notice anything like this when the Euro was a new thing in Finland, probably because I was so confused myself that other people's confusion wasn't anything out of ordinary for me

Also, I've gotten altogether 13 coins as change by now. Two of them (a 1c coin from a cafe and a 10c coin from another cafe), have been Estonian, the rest 11 Latvian. Actually quite interesting seeing how the Estonian coins have made it to parts of city outside the touristic areas in such a short time

EDIT: A cafe had run out of small notes, so instead of 5€, 2€ and 20c what I got back was 2 €, 4x 1€, 2x 50c, 2x 10c. Of those, one 50 c coin is Estonian and one 10c coin French. (Not sure if the French one is one that I brought here myself. But, for what I remember, my coins weren't as shiny as that one)

[gragox]

No one has yet refused to take foreign coins from me. But, yeah, occasionally they are flipped for a few times in their hands, before they are clear it is a real euro coin.

[ART]

But, yeah, occasionally they are flipped for a few times in their hands, before they are clear it is a real euro coin.

It happens everywhere in the early months. But I still remember in 2002 a cashier in a supermarket which surprised me because she handled the Euro-cash as if she was using from decades

[philgelico]

May I report a question (or a remark) made by someone in the FB group :
He said that in several towns in Latvia people already have inserted notes, but the cities don't appear on the EBT Dot-Map.
Please, Latvian EBTers, feel free to inform the Support Team when you insert notes in a new town.
There is a "Support" in the clickable words (on the left of the web-page).
And feel free to give the coordinates of the new city (longitude and latitude) .
Many thanks !