This morning I walked past the barrel-organ man and tossed a few dubbeldeuppies into his case.
I feel European above all else. Or perhaps even more: a citizen of the world. But still also Dutch. Like Martin van Winden, I’m not against a European Union, yet I’ve always had my doubts about introducing a single European currency. And also about a European constitution!
At the time of the referendum on the European constitution, I was taking courses in international (criminal) law and heard several guest lecturers explain in detail why such a constitution was simply legally impossible. I’ll write more about that another time. For now, a hot topic: the euro.
On 6 December 2001 the municipality of Rijswijk wrote the following in its weekly bulletin about the euro:
“It will take some getting used to, but the idea is that the euro, like the guilder, should get nicknames.
The nicknames for the various guilder coins and notes — joetje, geeltje, meier, rug and knaak — sound familiar and therefore don’t seem odd.
This is not the case with the winning nicknames from the nickname contest organised by the Ministry of Finance.
So that you won’t be left speechless at your local grocer’s when someone asks for a kleb, or a halfom for a broodje halfom, here are the winning nicknames:
• 1 euro cent – Fluitje
• 2 euro cent – Duocent
• 5 euro cent – Handje
• 10 euro cent – Deuppie
• 20 euro cent – Dubbelduppie
• 50 euro cent – Halfom
• 1 euro – Gouwering
• 2 euro – Daalder
• 5 euro – Kleb (‘smallest euro banknote’)
• 10 euro – Eurojoet
• 20 euro – Blauwtje
• 50 euro – Brammetje
• 100 euro – Hulk
• 200 euro – Dubbeldekker
• 500 euro – Eurotop”
Right — none of that sounds the least bit familiar to you, does it?