Currency passes first day at work

European consumers and global financial markets hailed a businesslike euro on its first day of active use yesterday after the virtually glitch-free new year's arrival of billions of banknotes and coins.

Bottlenecks, technical snags, strikes and bank robberies in Ireland and Greece cast only a faint shadow over its confident debut as a working currency for more than 300m people.

Overall, there was surprisingly little of the chaos it had been feared might mar euroland's long-awaited date with destiny.

Like the millennium bug - the global computer breakdown that failed to materialise on January 1 2000 - the smoothness of the huge e-day rollout and the first large-scale use of the euro confounded doom mongers and sceptics.

Pedro Solbes, the EU commissioner for monetary affairs, declared himself "extremely satisfied" and predicted that within a fortnight 90% of cash transactions across the 12-member eurozone would be in the new single currency.

Nearly 80% of cash dispensers were issuing the euro, although there were sharp regional variations, with Italy performing badly and the entire Austrian network briefly breaking down. Hundreds of Dutch post offices suffered a software failure.

No counterfeit notes were detected and there was little sign of price-fixing.

Shortages of new notes and coins was the biggest problem reported by many of the retailers in the frontline of the biggest currency changeover in history.

"Any element of suppressing uncertainties is positive for the future," Mr Solbes said at the commission's headquarters. The next big test would come on Saturday, Europe's busiest shopping day of the week.

Mr Solbes, a Spaniard, admitted he had encountered difficulties getting the correct euro change for a purchase. "Obviously there will be a number of hiccups along the way as people adapt," he said.

But that was not true everywhere. Tempers flared in a Brussels suburb over slow-moving queues at supermarket checkouts.

And there were complaints about prices being "rounded up" after conversion.

Banks from Helsinki to Athens - closed on Tuesday for the holiday - were unusually busy as customers sought to convert what are now being called "legacy currencies" into the new money. The 12 outgoing national currencies can be used up to February 28 but will then cease to be legal tender.

Shopkeepers reported that the majority of customers were still spending francs, marks and pesetas, but EU and national officials said this was only to be expected.

"It's a natural process that you first spend the money that you have," said Jan Smets, director-general for the euro at the Belgian National Bank.

Some Irish publicans refused to accept punts.

Reflecting the generally smooth changeover, the euro surged by 1.66% against the dollar and yen and a record 2% against the pound - sign of a mounting belief that Britain, along with fellow EU hold-outs Sweden and Denmark, will eventually take the plunge.

Across the continent, newspapers hailed a remarkably smooth start to the euro's life.

"Euro without a hitch," declared France's leftwing Liberation daily. "The euro survives its baptism of fire," agreed the business daily Les Echos.

The Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad said: "The smooth introduction of the new currency is not only a technical and logistical achievement, but is principally a historic milestone in the conflict-stained history of the old continent."

On a less elevated note, the Eurosceptic Italian economy minister, Giulio Tremonti, warned shoppers to pay attention to conversions to prevent "clever" salespeople from rounding up prices unfairly.

But the difficulty was demonstrated when reporters asked Portugal's finance minister, Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins, to give the escudo equivalent of €100. "That's .. er .. er .. well, it's going to take some time to get used to it all," he replied.