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CNN Live At Daybreak

Euro to Replace Ancient Currencies

Aired December 31, 2001 - 06:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nothing hurts worse, an ancient Roman historian once wrote, than the loss of money, and from the boot of Italy to the Irish isles, some Europeans are feeling the pain. The Greeks are giving up their drachma, a currency they've used for nearly 3,000 years.

In Italy, multi zero lira are disappearing as billionaires become millionaires and mere millionaires join the high pilloy (ph). The Germans are trading in their proud Deutsch mark eagle for a chubbier euro one, which some think looks like a bird on a high-tension wire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not particularly inspired, but I guess they'll get used to it.

BITTERMANN: That question of design is important to Europeans whose currencies have long reflected their history and heritage; their art and literature, invention and politics.

GILLES JAILLET, FRENCH CURRENCY DEALER: If you see the new bills of Euro, there is nothing. So it's -- for us, it's very little -- it's very, how you say triste, you know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Sad, yes, yes.

BITTERMANN: Sad, some think because the new euro offers just bridges and windows meant to be ambiguous in origin so they can not be identified with any particular country. Perhaps because when you handle money, a little nationalism rubs off. The creators of the euro have always hoped that when Europeans handle it, a little collective identify will be left behind.

If so, the euro will be a success no matter what the exchange rate, because the real value of a currency is the strength it symbolizes.

LUIGIA SOMMO, ITALIAN EURO CONSULTANT: Money is something you have to touch. You have to live with, just to realize the value and above all the symbolic -- the symbolic value it has.

BITTERMANN: But more than a symbol, money is power. By sharing a currency, Europeans are sharing power. If the continent can cooperate on such an intimate matter as money, one of the most private subjects there is, the euro may be further proof that the nations of Europe have evolved beyond the wars and conflicts of the past.

(on camera): Americans sometimes forget that it took nearly a half-century after they stopped killing each other in the Civil War before they were ready to cooperate in the establishment of a central bank and a common currency. Europeans have taken about the same of time after their last continental conflict to get to the same point.

(voice-over): And so, as they turn in their punts (ph) and pesetas, shillings and gilders, citizens of the euro dome are unquestionably giving up a little of their nationality and individuality. And it may be missed in some corners, but in the end they're quickly richer for it, and not just in the monetary sense.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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