Almost a decade after Spain replaced the peseta with the euro, shopkeepers in one small town have turned the clock back to accept the old currency as legal tender again.
More than 60 businesses in Mugardos, a fishing port in Galicia, have asked people to dig out any old peseta notes stuffed under the mattress in the hope of providing a much-needed boost to the local economy. With Spanish growth still sluggish and unemployment at a record 20.3 per cent — the highest in the European Union — consumer spending has nose-dived.
Pesetas were replaced by the euro in 2002 and Spaniards were given three months to cash them in. They can now only be exchanged for legal tender at the Bank of Spain.
The novel idea started a week ago, but already shoppers are coming to Mugardos from nearby towns and villages to spend pesetas they had held onto as mementos of a lost Spain.
One man brought in a 10,000 peseta note (£51) to the Juan H. Rey ironmongers and walked away with a sandwich-maker and some other small articles.
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“This man saw a story on television about what we are doing and he came in. A lot of people are coming with smaller notes and money that they had at home but did not think anything about,” Mr Rey said.
Lupe Pazos, president of the town’s trade body, said: “We had to do something to revive business which has been terrible since the crisis started.”
It is not the first time Spanish businesses have turned to the peseta in the hope of reviving the good times. In 2009, 48 businesses in Narón, another town in the northwestern region, launched a campaign called ‘Viva la peseta!’.
They urged people to hunt out old peseta notes which they could then use in the shops. In all shoppers found 1,080,018 pesetas (£5,592) in just three months.
The Bank of Spain estimates that altogether €1.7 billion (£1.46bn)in pesetas is still missing. Most of this cash is thought to have left Spain forever in the pockets of tourists.