Sir, - Now that the fuss has died down somewhat, may I ask a question? Why are the benighted coins so difficult to tell apart? Not being gifted with proficiency in Braille, or the visual acuity of a hawk, most people frequently mix them up and I have seen attempts to buy The Irish Times for €2.07, €1.17 and €1.72, all in the space of three days!
No doubt familiarity will solve this problem in time, but there is another unrecognised quirk to the design of the coinage. Close scrutiny of the 50, 20 and 10 cent coins reveals a disturbing feature. Unlike the 1 and 2 euro pieces, the map of the EU on these smaller denominations is fragmented: Portugal is surrounded by a moat, France has succeeded in separating itself from Germany and Spain, Italy has been disarticulated at the hip, Sweden, Finland and Denmark jostle each other in the Baltic, Greece has joined those other funny islands floating in the Aegean and two-thirds of Ulster has fallen off into the Irish Sea.
Is this a portent of geological catastrophes - or merely a strong hint that money is all that holds the EU together? - Yours, etc.,
South Hill,
Dublin 6.