Euro kits snapped up in Germany

Thousands of banks across Germany have started selling the packs

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Germans have been queueing to get their hands on starter kits of euro coins, swapping their cherished Deutschemarks for the new European currency.

Undeterred by snow and freezing temperatures, Germans stood outside thousands of banks on Monday to pick up a sample of euro coins before the new currency is officially launched on January 1.

Germany, Greece and Portugal began distributing the kits on Monday -- the last three eurozone countries to do so.

The coin sets are giving 305 million people in the 12 countries using the euro their first chance to handle the new money, two years after the euro was officially launched.

At a ceremony in Frankfurt just after midnight, Bundesbank President Ernst Welteke sold the first starter kits, that included about 20 coins.

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The chairman of Dresdner Bank, Bernd Fahrholz, also handed out the starter kits -- priced at about $9 and containing 10.23 euros -- to a select group of visitors.

Banks in Germany have stocked up with 53.5 million sets, anticipating strong demand driven by curiosity to actually see a euro, even though they cannot be spent until January 1.

Germany's Commerzbank said it had ordered a million kits -- one for every customer with a cheque account.

"The question is, will it be enough?" spokesman Peter Pietsch told The Associated Press. "There will be a rush on starter kits on Monday morning, and I think it's advisable to get to the branch as early as possible."

Bank officials think some people will use the kits as Christmas gifts. But it is hoped that they will not be hoarded as souvenirs.

To encourage people to actually tear open the kits and spend them, they were made as plain as possible -- in Germany, simple plastic bags with the national eagle symbol on them.

The starter kits went on sale on Friday in Ireland, the Netherlands and France. Forty million kits have been sold in France.

The kits went on sale in Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Finland, Italy and Spain on Saturday.

The idea behind the kits is to give people a chance to become familiar with the new coins, and to give them small change to make purchases.

The European Central Bank decided to limit the sets to coins only, in an attempt to give counterfeiters less of a head start in trying to copy the notes' security features. Notes become available on January 1.

In the new year, shops will still accept the old currencies, but most will give change only in euros.

That should quickly remove most of the old money from circulation, with most transactions expected to be all in euros by January 15.

Some 52 billion coins and 14.9 billion bank notes have been produced for the launch. National currencies such as marks, francs and guilders will still be valid for up to two months, and can be exchanged at banks after that.