Not Replaced by Euro: Germans Still 'Keep Under Mattresses' 12 Billion Marks

(Patria) - Germans still keep around 12 billion German marks under their mattresses.

- People usually come after clearing out apartments of friends or relatives when they find banknotes or more often coins of German marks in various places - said Uwe Deichert, spokesman for the German Central Bank (Bundesbank), for the Evangelical News Agency (EPD).

Apart from mattresses, the most common places where larger amounts are found are old medicine or cookie boxes. Money is also discovered under houseplants, and coins in old clothes or even sewn into curtains.

Representatives of the Bundesbank say they have also noticed a trend of selling off coin collections.

- Apparently, collectors have realized that the value of their collections will no longer increase, so they have decided to cash in their numismatic collections - Deichert points out.

However, there are exceptions: five-mark coins issued between 1953 and 1971, due to their high silver content, whose price is constantly rising, still perform well on numismatic markets.

According to estimates, 24 years after the introduction of the euro, around 12 billion German marks have still not been exchanged - 5.6 billion in banknotes and 6.5 billion in coins.

The Bundesbank has no data on how many marks are located within Germany itself.

One of the reasons why such a large amount of money has not been exchanged is that many marks are located outside Germany, making conversion to euros not so simple.

- But there are also other, emotional reasons. Many, especially older citizens, associate the German mark with post-war economic recovery and prosperity - says Deichert.

Economic psychologist Stefan Trautmann from the Institute for Economic Sciences in Heidelberg believes that the fact that so many German marks are still in coins and banknotes can be explained by the trust Germans have in cash.

- In Germany, people still believe in cash, and then it can easily happen that larger sums are forgotten somewhere - Trautmann states.

However, they can all rest easy if they change their minds: Germany is one of the few eurozone countries where there is no time limit for exchanging DM for euros. Nor will the exchange rate of 1.95 marks per euro change.