My grandparents lived through inflation around 1923. 

In Germany, where I grew up, we paid with the German Mark before 2002. When we went on holiday abroad, you paid in France with French francs, in Italy with the lira and in the Netherlands with the guilder. You had to convert all the time.

The European Union has made a strong case for a single currency. 

Since 2002, we have been paying in twelve countries; Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain with the euro. Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania followed later.

Each country has retained its own identity. How beautiful it was in the beginning, for example, to look at a euro coin from Spain. Nowadays everything is so common and well mixed, that no one looks after it anymore.

In the Netherlands at the time, our Queen Beatrix was depicted. 

In 2013 the change to the throne was announced and Beatrix is depicted together with her son Willem Alexander on the 2 euro coin. Now only the king is on our 2 euro coin.

Other countries around us have partly opted for a different image.

In Germany you can see an eagle as a symbol of the country, in France you can see a tree of life and in Italy you can see Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of the ideal proportions of the human body.

Each country cherishes its own identity. 

I share Lisa’s concern that the coins are slowly disappearing, which would be a great pity. But that’s how it goes in life, nothing stays the way it is.

I can tell you that my work is already done. I’ve never been so early! But it’s a reassuring thought. How far along are you?