Germans have heeded the call to empty their piggy banks and jam jars of old marks before the euro becomes the sole cash currency and deposited more than 8.3 billion coins in their bank accounts, a German newspaper reported Sunday.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, citing unpublished figures from the end of November from Germany's Bundesbank, said that the number had surpassed the goal set in May by the central bank to collect some seven billion coins by the end of the year.
The Bundesbank had called on Germans to pay the "Schlafmuenzen" or "sleeping coins" they had stashed away over the years into their bank accounts to avoid a crunch when the euro takes over as the only acceptable cash currency from January 1 -- AFP
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