THE EXCHANGE of Slovak crown coins for euros in commercial banks will cease at the end of June this year, but the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) stressed that exchange of Slovak crown coins and banknotes will remain free of charge until then, the SITA newswire wrote. Banks may, however, ask customers to sort cash into separate denominations.
“As of June 30, 2009, the obligation of banks to exchange Slovak crown coins for euros will end. After this date, the exchange of coins for euros will be possible only in the NBS, which will exchange Slovak crown coins until the end of 2013,” NBS spokeswoman Jana Kováčová informed told SITA.
To date, the NBS has withdrawn more than 96 percent of the Slovak crowns which were in circulation at the end of 2007. However, more than Sk6.1 billion – worth €202 million – remain ‘in circulation’ according to the NBS. There are still more than 408 million coins outstanding, most of which are 50 heller (€0.0165) and 1 crown (€0.033) coins. As for banknotes, there are still around 23 million crown banknotes unaccounted for, of which most are Sk20 (€0.66) and Sk100 (€3.32) banknotes, SITA wrote.