Test your Euro Knowledge

Bank staff should brace themselves for a mystifying start to the New Year in case customers demand accounts be converted into equarders, eus or even curos rather than the newly introduced euro. With just over two weeks to E-day, a survey reveals 51 per cent of those questioned still do not know the correct name of the new European single currency. Only five per cent surveyed in the BBC Money Programme poll knew euro notes and coins would be introduced in 2002, and 90 per cent had no idea the euro would be worth around 70p. European Movement director Steven Woodard said the findings illustrated how out of touch people were with events on the other side of the Channel. Try our quiz to find out if your euro knowledge is up to speed...

1. When does the euro start?

a) January 1, 1999; b) January 1, 2000; c) January 1, 2010

2. What will one euro be worth?

a) Roughly 70p; b) pounds 1; c) Roughly 20p

3. When will euro notes and coins come into circulation?

a) 2002; b) 1999; c) 2000

4. Which of the following countries is not joining the first wave?

a) UK; b) Finland; c) Spain

5. How many European Union countries are joining in the first wave?

a) Eleven - all but the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Greece; b) Nine; c) All 15

6. Who will set interest rates in countries taking part?

a) The European Central Bank; b) The Bundesbank; c) Individual central banks coordinating with each other

7. Should Britain join, will the Queen's head be permitted...

a) On euro coins but not notes? b) On euro notes and coins? c) On neither?

8. Who is president of the European Central Bank?

a) Wim Duisenberg; b) Jean-Paul Gaultier; c) Jean Claude van Damme

9. When the name for the euro was being chosen the then chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, unsuccessfully proposed which alternative?

a) The florin; b) The guinea; c) The Churchill

10. Which of the following statements is untrue?

a) Prototype euro coins proved magnetic, and clumped together; b) A prototype hologram inprint for the euro notes went missing on a flight

from Frankfurt airport; c) The first batch of euro coins minted had to be melted down because of complaints that they would confuse blind people

The correct answer is a) in every case.

Stephen Castle