Some friends who are not collectors recently returned from a two week trip to Italy and brought back (at my request) their pocket change from the trip that ended up being about
€7,00 or 23 coins in denominations from 1c to €1,00 (2c coins were missing from this sample).
My interest in their pocket change was out of a curiosity based upon my interest in Roman coins and knowing a little about how Roman coins of different mints, some far afield from where they were eventually found in hoards circulated freely in the "common market" of the Roman Empire.
No hard and fast conclusions can be gathered from this small sample, but I find it interesting that for the first time since the collapse of the Roman Empire, Europe has a standard currency that circulates as its Roman predecessors did 18 centuries ago.
This sample of 23 coins can be broken down as follows with coins originating in:
Austria 1 4.3%
Spain 5 21.7%
Germany 5 21.7%
Italy 10 43.4%
Greece 1 4.3%
France 1 4.3%
The 56.6% of the sample originates from outside Italy, but the largest single contingent is Italian in origin, followed by Spain and Germany.
By denomination, the breakdown is as follows:
1-1c (Italian origin and not found in change but picked up randomly from the ground)
2-5c (1-France, 1-Italy)
7-10c (3-Italy, 3-Spain, 1-Greece)
6-20c (1-Italy, 2-Germany, 1-Austria, 2-Spain)
4-50c (2-Italy, 2-Germany)
3-€1,00 (2-Italy, 1-Germany)
Mints and Dates:
1c Italy 2013
5c Italy 2002, France 2007
10c Greece 2002, Italy 2007 & 2011, Spain 1999 & 2005
20c Italy 2002, Austia 2016, Germany 2002F & 2002J, Spain 1999, 2007
50c Italy 2002, Germany 2002D
€1,00 Italy 2009 & 2010, Germany 2002G
Distances:
The coins from Spain traveled approximately 1,200 miles East from Madrid to their destination in Rome which was the furthest any of the coins traveled with one of the German coins traveling from Hamburg (mint) South to Rome at about 1,030 miles. The Greek coin traveled approximately 836 miles west from Athens to Rome.
