EUR 200m in francs yet to be unconverted

19 November 2004

BRUSSELS – There are still around EUR 200 million-worth of Belgian franc coins in people’s homes, it emerged on Friday.

The Belgian treasury said there were eight billion Belgian francs, which had not been converted to the euro when the franc went out of circulation at the end of 2001.

Anyone who wants to convert francs – the old currency went from 50 centimes to 50 francs – has until the end of this year to take them to the National Bank or the Post Office.

“Many coins have been mislaid,” said Viviane Buydens, spokeswoman for the Public Finance department.

She thinks many of the coins are being kept by people as a souvenir or have been taken abroad by visitors to Belgium.

It was unlikely that people were keeping the coins in the hope that they would be valuable later. “If people imagine one day these coins will be valuable, they are mistaken,” she added.

Subject: Belgian news