A TOWN IN northern Spain has decided to reintroduce the old currency – the peseta – alongside the euro in a bid to boost the local economy.
In Mugardos, a small fishing town in Galicia, shopkeepers are asking anyone with stashes of the old cash at home to come and spend it, according to the BBC.
It is nine years since Spain, along with other EU countries including Ireland, changed their national currency for the euro.
But now more than 60 shops in Mugardos are accepting the old peseta again alongside the euro.
The move is a bid to “encourage purchases in times of crisis,” according to Spanish news agency EFE (subscription).
The initiative began last Tuesday with outlets ranging from hardware stores to gift shops all participating.
Shopkeepers were said to be sceptical at first but are now hailing it as a great success with reports of people travelling to the village just to spend their old currency that they never managed to convert.
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