My Greek 1 Eurocent I shall not spend

Somewhere I have a 5 trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe which is, apparently, worth quite a bit on ebay although it never had much value in Zim. I now find in my pocket a 1 Eurocent piece minted in Greece which I also intend to treasure as a bit of a currency geek. It will soon be absolutely worthless (right now it is worthless to all intents and purposes) but that might give it a strange value.

It is a pretty little coin about half the size of a 1 penny piece with a picture of an ancient Athenian ship (a trireme) on the reverse. At current exchange rates it is worth about 0.8p so it does not get you far. Long gone are the days when (with the drachma at 150 to the pound) you could get a glass of (piss poor) wine in mountain villages here for 1 drachma. But…

At some stage Greece will leave the Euro. At that point folks will be told that – for argument’s sake 1 Euro is worth 100 New Drachmas. For a while, until new drachma bills and coins are produced anyone holding Greek minted Euro would be allowed to use it at the drachma equivalent so my 1 Euro cent piece is 1 drachma. Since the new drachma will plunge in value from day 1 anyone with half a brain here in Greece is hoarding German/Austrian/Dutch etc minted Euro and trying to shift their Greek/Spanish minted Euro as fast as possible. Because when the great day comes, those holding a stack of 4th Reich Euro notes will at a stroke be better off than those holding Greek minted Euro notes which will effectively be drachmas.
My guess is that the drachma will lose 40% against the Euro within days. And then, as the politicians once again start eating all the pies, it will be a one way bet thereafter.

Assuming the Euro retains parity with Sterling my 1 Greek Eurocent piece will thus be worth less than 1/2p PDQ. In due course when New Drachmas are minted this will be a coin not worth recreating. And after a while it will not even be legal tender. But it is a pretty little piece and two of them together could be mounted and on my wall would serve as a pleasant reminder (as does the 5 trillion dollar bill) of the folly of man when it comes to abusing fiat currency.