This year, the Bundesbank exchanged old Deutsche Mark banknotes and coins for euros in more than 91,000 cases. From January to the end of November, slightly more than 53 million German marks were collected, which is more than 27 million euros. This means that the amount of marks changed into euros increased for the second time in a row.
“We expect that a lot of German marks will be exchanged in the coming years as well,” said Bundesbank board member Burkhard Balz in an interview with the German news agency dpa.
Even almost 22 years after the introduction of the euro (January 2002), billions of German marks have still not been returned. According to the Bundesbank, at the end of November 2023, just under 12.2 billion marks, which is about 6.24 billion euros, were still lying around. These are banknotes worth about 5.7 billion marks and coins worth about 6.6 billion marks.
“I am always impressed by how many German marks have not yet been returned to the Bundesbank, even in the third decade after the national currency was replaced by the euro,”says Balz.
Germany is one of the six members of the eurozone where it is still possible to exchange the old national currency for euros for an unlimited period of time. This is also possible in Austria, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Anyone who still has old German marks can exchange them: free of charge, at 31 branches of the Bundesbank, or by mail via the branch of the Bundesbank in Mainz. The exchange rate was fixed by the introduction of the euro: one euro is obtained for 1.95583 German marks.
Some of the old notes and coins will probably never be replaced – for example because they are in collectors’ collections. The Bundesbank also assumes that significant amounts of money are held abroad, as the German mark has been popular around the world as a stable currency, Deutsche Welle reports.
