You can trade them in for legal tender, but Germans still hold
Deutschmarks. Fourteen years after Europe began switching to the euro, the Bundesbank says the combined stash of notes and coins is worth 6.6 billion euros.
Later the same day he was considering a further 3pc rate rise, but wiser council prevailed and the government threw in the towel, devalued its currency and stopped trying to peg it to
deutschmark.
The above analysis leaves out aspects such as the increased (in comparison to the
deutschmark) international role of the euro and the integration of European financial markets that may have some positive but unquantifiable economic consequences.
While Leo Kirch has been fending off accusations and speculation that he secretly donated money to former German chancellor Helmut Kohl in the past, the Munich media mogul made no effort to hide a recent million
deutschmark ($500,000) donation to his old friend.
Or he could bet that the Mexican prime rate in July, paired with the three-month yield on the German
deutschmark, would be over or under the number 26.
Since the dollar exchange rate illustrated a downward trend after the Plaza Agreement of September 1995, the new international monetary system composed of the US dollar, the
deutschmark and the yen has been discussed as an alternative to the system based solely on the dollar.
"We have in place strategies which are intended to limit the impact of foreign currency exposures on our business, including currency risk-sharing arrangements with our Japanese suppliers and forward exchange contract coverage on our German
Deutschmark related purchases."
"As an optimist, I believe that the high interest rates for the other foreign currencies such as the
deutschmark or yen are not sustainable at their current high level.
Compare this with the 500,000
deutschmark annual income of a top manager and the 60,000
deutschmark income of a foreman in a West German company of similar size.
Many Germans were reluctant to give up the
Deutschmark, which symbolised Germany's post-war economic revival.
The last time the IMF's reserve currency basket was modified was in the year 2000, when the euro replaced France's franc and Germany's
deutschmark.
The problem in 1983 was that the pound had became a petrocurrency, far too high against the dollar and
deutschmark for British industry to compete.
