ROME was the venue this week for yet another in the seemingly endless procession of mind numbing EU meetings to discuss some of the "practical implications of monetary union". Oh really! Ah, but pause briefly, patient reader, before sprinting on to the births, marriages and deaths, for this particular meeting did not get bogged down in cheerless talk about convergence, fast and slow lanes, shadow currencies, etc, but actually addressed some raw practicalities, such as the weighty issue of what to do with tons of various coinage made redundant by the birth of the euro.
Contemplating a coinage mountain is familiar territory for the community, having orchestrated beef, butter and milk powder mountains, and olive oil and wine lakes. Around 46 billion coins, weighing about 300,000 tonnes, will be recalled if all EU states join the planned single currency. Getting the euro into Europe's pockets will cost £1.6 billion while redundant coinage will contain around £656 million in usable metal. Not many people know that, as Michael Caine would say.
EU national mints have been asked to submit designs for the euro. A coin similar to that famous mint with a hole in the middle would be apposite, symbolising the black hole of the Brussels subsidy culture.
