Only three days to run for the Cyprus pound

WITH only three days to go until its final demise, around £200 million worth of Cyprus pounds are still in circulation, the Central Bank said yesterday.

According to Kyriacos Zingas, a senior official at the Central Bank, £500 million worth have been taken out of circulation since the adoption of the euro, but not all have been returned.

“There are some still in the pipeline at the banks, but 75 per cent of notes have been returned to the Central Bank,” said Zingas.

“There are still £27 million in coins out there and £180 million in notes.”

Zingas said it would be impossible to determine how much was circulating in euros. He said the Central Bank had put €1 billion into circulation, roughly the same amount that had been circulating in Cyprus pounds, £650 million.

But people would have brought in euros from other EU countries as well, so it would not be possible to determine the exact amount currently circulating, he said. Zingas said disposal of the Cypriot currency had already begun. He said there was a special depo where the coins were defaced by a machine to make them unusable.

He said if all of the coins were returned, they would weigh 2,000 tonnes.When the coins, made from a copper alloy, have been defaced, they will be sold as scrap. Zingas said there was good money in copper at the moment.

The notes, he said, would be shredded after they were counted and authenticated. This had already begun as well, Zingas said.

“This will all take a few months,” he added.

When all the notes are in, they will number 80 million, he added. The public will still be able to change their Cyprus notes at the banks free of charge until the end of June, and at the Central Bank until the end of 2017.

Earlier yesterday, Finance Minister Michalis Sarris said transactions in euros had now reached 95 per cent

“Our initial optimism has been confirmed in that two or three days before the expiration of the dual circulation period, the euro is almost the exclusive currency in Cyprus,” he said.

However, he did say there were some instances where people were still using Cyprus pounds.

“Of course, cases exist of individuals who somehow find it difficult to carry out transactions in euros and deal with pounds instead,” Sarris said.

Asked what was the chance that people would continue to deal in pounds after Thursday, the Minster said the possibility did exist but was remote. He said the banks had already changed their reserves into euros so it would be hard to find anyone with Cyprus pounds.