BRUSSELS, Dec 31: More than 144 billion euros ($127.8 billion) in banknotes and coins are ready to go into public circulation on Tuesday, the European Commission said Monday, hours ahead of the world’s biggest monetary changeover.

“All in all, more than 144 billion in euro cash has been delivered safely and in time,” the office of EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes said in a statement.

“As from midnight (2300 GMT), the physical changeover (from the 12 national currencies) will enter into its final and definitive stage, as Europe’s citizens will start to receive and spend their first euro banknotes.”

Though euro cash and most national currencies will be allowed to circulate in parallel “as a safety valve” until the end of February, the commission urged the 304 million Europeans in euro zone to try to use euros exclusively as soon as possible.

The euro debuted on New Year’s Day 1999, but only for electronic transactions. National currencies were fixed at a conversion rate to the euro in preparation for Tuesday’s historic cash swap.

Since the first stacks of euro cash began to be shipped to banks last September, businesses in the euro zone have been supplied with six billion banknotes and 37.5 billion coins.

That represents 40 and 74 per cent of total production of banknotes and coins, respectively, the commission said.

Since mid-December, more than 150 million “minikits” — plastic sachets of euro coins — have been sold to the public, representing more than 4.2 billion coins worth 1.6 billion euros.

“This means that on average, each individual is in possession in 14 coins,” it said.

“In a number of countries, such as Germany, Portugal, Finland and Luxembourg, demand was such that banks were authorized to make up their own kits and even to sell some of their bulk stocks,” it said.

Only 60 percent of small businesses have euros in their tills for Tuesday’s switchover, however, despite the fact that neighbourhood merchants are on the front lines of the currency change.

In the run-up to Tuesday, the commission said dual pricing of goods and services in euros and national currencies had become commonplace, even in those euro-zone countries where it was not obligatory.

“Checks conducted by the authorities suggest that conversions are well over 95 per cent accurate,” it said. “The odd mistakes found are virtually all accidental.”

In Germany, merchants have even been rounding down their prices, it said.

“Deliberate cheating” will be penalized, it said, amid consumers’ worries that unscrupulous merchants will try to hide behind the changeover to jack up their prices.

In recent months, the commission added, a “higher than usual” number of counterfeit national currencies have been discovered in “many” of the euro-zone countries.

But it added: “As far as the euro is concerned, no forged notes or coins have been found to date.”—AFP