24 january 2015, n-n-n-n-nineteen

Apart from a set of estonians and the larger san marinos, I did have a full set of euros coins - yes I even have two sets of vatican ones. My greeks may yet become collector's items, though I don't think so. The greeks indeed could do worse than look to lithuania for some lessons, as they became the 19th country to join monetary union, meaning there's a whole new set I'm after. I visited lithuania several times in earlier days, not least to try and retrace some of the steps very many of my ancestors will have trodden, though even had I known what they were, there is very little of it left. For all its battering, the euro remains strikingly popular in lithuania, with 63% favouring it, up a quarter from last year. This in part will be due to the established way the currency is now introduced, I say with a slight twinge having helped design that but never applied it to my own country. No doubt russia's not too distant rumblings have also had a psychological effect in making any further westward integration more welcome, but another country's embrace of the euro, in a robust and stringent manner (I recall well when they failed the tests in 2007), is also a vote of confidence in the currency, which though small should not go unoticed.