2026-01-11 13:39
publication
2026-01-11 13:39
24 years after adopting the euro, German marks are still exchanged in Germany. Last year, Germany gave 58 million marks to the Bundesbank and received EUR 27 million in return. Old banknotes and coins can be exchanged in Germany indefinitely.
The Bundesbank announced such statistics for 2025. The trend is downward. A year earlier, in 2024, slightly more of the old currency reached the branches of the German central bank – 53.2 million marks. In 2023, it was approximately 58 million marks.
Replaced by the euro in 2002, banknotes and coins often appear in inheritance cases or as accidental finds when purchasing old houses. However, it sometimes happens that they are kept for years for sentimental reasons, and then the owner finally decides to sell them.
The Bundesbank assumes that some of the old banknotes and coins will never be returnedamong others because they found their way to collectors, were taken abroad or simply lost. It is estimated that Marks worth over EUR 6.2 billion have not been returned so far.
People who find old banknotes or coins can exchange them free of charge at all Bundesbank branches. The exchange rate was permanently fixed with the introduction of the euro. For 1.95583 German marks you are entitled to 1 euro.
Germany is one of seven eurozone countries where both banknotes and coins of the old monetary unit can be exchanged for euro without time limits. Similar rules apply in Austria, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as in Bulgaria, which joined the euro zone this year. Banknotes of former national currencies, but not coins, can also be exchanged indefinitely in Belgium, Croatia, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Slovakia. In the remaining nine euro area countries, central banks no longer exchange old currencies. (PAP)
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