Austria's schilling spending spree

Euro cash was launched almost a year ago

Europeans have gone on a spending spree with the national notes and coins that were abolished when the euro was introduced.

We were very surprised on the first Saturday when schilling sales accounted for about 3% of our total turnover

Herbert Asamer, C&A

Department store C&A prompted people to look under their mattresses for their old money when it offered to accept the national currencies that the euro had replaced.

At first the company's Austrian stores said people could spend their old money during the first week of December but the idea has proved so popular that it has been extended to Christmas.

C&A came up with the scheme after the Austrian national bank said that about 8bn Austrian schillings (£375m) were still missing.

Even so, Herbert Asamer, a spokesman for the store, said the company was surprised by how many customers had responded to the offer.

Hoarding the past

"We had no real expectations of value when we began, but we were very surprised on the first Saturday when schilling sales accounted for about 3% of our total turnover," Mr Asamer told the BBC's World Business Report.

In the days that followed, the intake of Austrian schillings rose to up to 8% of total turnover.

C&A has launched similar ventures in Germany, Belgium and Holland, while France has just started a pilot week.

Euro notes and cash were launched on 1 January, 2002 and customers had about a month before the old currency ceased to be legal tender.

While the first year of euro cash is widely perceived to have been a success, no-one knows why so much old currency has been hoarded.