Sets of euro coins are being auctioned at more than 10 times their face value on the Internet in advance of their official launch on January the first.
Just 12 days before the coins become legal tender, one bidder on the Internet auction site eBay agreed to pay 41 dollars for euro coins with a face value of 3.85 euros, or about 3.50 dollars.
Tens of millions of people snapped up sample sets of euro coins across the 12-country euro zone last week ahead of their birth as legal tender at the start of 2002. Most of the kits were sold at face value.
Euro coins are not yet available overseas, however foreign buyers appeared willing to pay heavy prices to get them.
The final bid for one set, comprising of a euro coin, a two-euro coin, a 50 euro-cent coin a 20 euro-cent coin, a 10 euro-cent coin and a five euro-cent coin, was 41 dollars - not including the 2.48 dollar air mail charge.
Another set from the Netherlands - where the authorities offered each citizen a 3.88-euro kit comprising each euro coin for free - attracted a bid of 10.08 dollars.
American Numismatics Association spokesman Mr Stephen Bobbit said the attraction of the currency was its novelty.
"They do it to hold a piece of history in their hands, and this is a piece of history," said Mr Bobbit.
Some of the coins on offer on the Internet have already been consigned a place in history.
At one auction, a bidder was offering 17.50 dollars - plus seven dollars shipping - for an "Isle of Wight euro coin set" offered by International Numismatics in Melbourne, Australia.
AFP
