Euro coins divide Britons

These Slovak students welcomed the euro's arrival

London may be a cosmopolitan city, and a melting pot of cultures from throughout the globe.

Mr Wimbledon: "We have more and more elderly people, and I do not think it would be fair on them to change the coins"

But a warm welcome for the euro coins, which are due to hit streets in countries such as France, Germany and Italy on 1 January, took longer to find on a BBC survey of Londoners' views.

"It looks just like play money", said Marjorie Campbell, a nurse, eyeing one of the euro coin starter kits, which have gone on sale on the Continent.

"It's like the money you get in the Early Learning Centre. The only difference being that there the money is plastic. It looks dreadful."

Size matters

The starter pack, containing Dutch-issue coins with Queen Beatrix on the back, also curried little flavour with Vaughan Richards.

"For a start, they are too small," said Mr Richards.

"Then, the one cent piece looks just like a 1p piece, and the 2 euro coin looks too much like a £2 piece."

While he warmed slightly after being informed that Britain, should it adopt the euro, could mint coins bearing its monarch's head, Mr Richards overall refused to approve of them.

"We have lost enough of what it means to be British without losing our currency as well."

Elderly confusion

Newspaper seller Derek Wimbledon wondered how euro coins would be accepted by older people.

Mr Richards: "For a start, they are too small"

"They would have to go back to school to learn how to use that lot," he said pointing to a pack, containing a mixture of coins from the copper-coloured 1 cent to the bimetallic 2 euro.

"We have more and more elderly people, and I do not think it would be fair on them to change the coins. I am getting on myself and all."

And Les Spaine, an administrative manager at a building surveyor, suggested that a range of shapes should have been used to make the coins easier to differentiate.

"These coins are all round," he said. "If they came in different shapes it would make them easier for blind people to tell them apart."

Storm in a teacup

However, Mr Spaine dismissed concerns over the difficulty of getting the new coins accepted by consumers.

"I was born in the same year as decimalisation," he said.

"We have had many changes since then - the hapenny has gone, 20p come in, 5p and 10p changed - and they have all worked.

"We are a part of Europe after all."

And stallholder Nasser Mohammed said he would be happy to accept the coins, once he had got used to them.

"They are not bad," he said, squinting at the starter pack. "It is what we all should be getting."

Should we care?

Slovak students Martina Frolok and Radomir Knotek, himself a coin collector, also approved.

Spaine: "These coins are all round"

"I like the way you get the smallest coins for the smallest denominations, rising to the largest for the 2 euro," Mr Knotek said.

"That makes them easier for people to use."

Ms Frolok said: "They are a bit like the Italian coins, which I like. And the fact they have not got too much national identity makes them easier for people across Europe to accept."

Not that everyone BBC News Online questioned seemed concerned either way, such as a shopper who seemed more concerned with her purchases than what she used to buy them.

"If we are going to get them, we are going to get them," she said.

"At the end of the day, it is all money."