Beware Greeks bearing euros. Some Germans are now rejecting banknotes issued by the flakier members of the eurozone.
The national issuer can be identified by checking the serial number on the banknotes themselves. Check the letter preceding the number against the list at the bottom of the page. This is a code for the central bank that commissioned the note. If you have one with the letter Y – the code for Greece – you might want to swap it.
Last week the cash-strapped Greek government issued €2.5 billion of debt as three-month notes rather than bonds. Standard & Poor's then downgraded the country's sovereign debt from A to A-1.
Interest spreads on 10-year Greek bonds are now trading 245 basis points higher than German bonds giving another measure of the risk of default.
Many Germans are now withdrawing money from bank branches rather than cash machines as it is easier to screen the notes and refuse the ones issued by flaky governments. If the notes carry the Y, or S for Italy, or V for Spain Germans ask for them to be replaced by euros printed by the Bundesdruckerei in Berlin.
Z Belgium
Y Greece
X Germany
V Spain
U France
T Ireland
S Italy
R Luxembourg
P Netherlands
N Austria
M Portugal
L Finland
H Slovenia
F Malta
E Slovakia