[size=50:578ttrca]BBC

[size=150:578ttrca]Spanish town reintroduces Peseta to boost economy

The Bank of Spain says millions of pesetas were never converted into euros.
A small town in northern Spain has decided to reintroduce the old Spanish currency - the peseta - alongside the euro to give the local economy a lift. Shopkeepers in Mugardos want anyone with forgotten stashes of the old cash at home to come and spend it. It is nine years since the peseta was official currency in Spain. But Spain's economic crisis has forced some to be inventive. The hard times have seen thousands of businesses close and more than two million jobs go.

Forgotten coins
More than 60 shops in Mugardos, a small fishing town in Galicia on Spain's northern coast, are accepting the peseta again for all purchases, alongside the euro. It is an attempt to get cash registers ringing - and help lift the town out of a long and painful economic slump. Shopkeepers were sceptical at first, but they now say the scheme is a great success. People are travelling into Mugardos from outside just to spend the old currency they never got round to converting.

One man visited the local hardware store this week with a 10,000-peseta note he had found at home, and had no idea what to do with. He is now the happy owner of a sandwich toaster, the euro was introduced in January 2002. Spaniards then had another three months to exchange their old currency at any bank. That cash can still be converted today, but only at the Bank of Spain itself, and it says a staggering 1.7bn ($2bn) of cash is still unaccounted for - stashed, perhaps, then forgotten;
piles of coins that slipped down the backs of sofas;
or even big notes kept by collectors.

That is the reserve the shopkeepers of Mugardos are hoping to tap and give a desperately needed boost to business. Still, the Bank of Spain estimates that almost half the country's millions of missing pesetas will never be recovered - despite their value. It believes many left the country long ago, in the purses and pockets of tourists.

Brilliant idea

Great idea I think the Euro has done so much damage to Europe and I'm hoping that Bg doesn't take it on .

I cannot see how this will help them. In theory, the only people who would accept it as valid currency would be those who agreed to it. Otherwise they may as well work for nothing.And where will all this old money come from? Just who has got stashes of the stuff lying around at home saved for a rainy day? It's a kick in the teeth for the Euro, and kind of rightly so too.. It is a sign that many are willing to do whatever it takes to break away from a scheme that is binding tighter and tighter daily. Things must be far worse than anyone is letting on if people are resorting to this now.. I can only imagine many people writing IOU's or having tally sheets for work/goods obtained etc. If the report is anything to go by, anyone who visited Spain prior to the Euro may still have some old cash at their home.. so the tourists might benefit from this.