- BERLIN (Reuters) - Almost
two years after the introduction of the euro, nostalgic Germans are hoarding
some 25 billion Deutschmark coins -- worth about $4.2 billion -- as souvenirs.
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- The number of coins being held is about half the 49 billion
Deutschmark coins in circulation just before the single European currency
was launched in January 2001, said Bundesbank spokeswoman Gabriele Reitz-Werner
on Tuesday.
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- "The Deutschmark is widely regarded as a symbol
of Germany's postwar recovery that led to the so-called economic miracle
of the late 1950s and early 1960s," a spokeswoman for the BDB banking
association Kerstin Altendorf told Reuters.
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- "Especially elderly Germans still have strong emotional
ties to it," she added. But BDB figures show Germans' acceptance of
Europe's common currency has grown in recent years.
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