Can i exchange old money/currency?

Question

i have got lots of old banknotes before countries started using euros and i would like to exchange them for euros or pounds. can i do this and how would i go about doing it? thanks

Answer 1

It depends on the country. In Germany banknotes of the former Deutsche Mark can still be changed to Euro at the central bank of German counties, having a total of 46 agencies scattered throughout Germany.  

Edit: just found a link providing the deadlines for change of old currency to Euro in the verious countries.

Answer 2

woa i never heard of that call a bank

Answer 3

There is no longer a central point for all old currencies of the Euro to exchange them

Also in most (all?) of the EU countries, the domestic banks have also stopped exchanging them as well.  Therefore you have to go to the Central Bank of each country to exchange them.

e.g. for France - the Banque de France or GFC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fran...

e.g. for Italy - the Banca d'Italia http://www.bancaditalia.it/bancomonete/c...

e.g. for the Netherlands De Nederlandsche Bank http://www.dnb.nl/dnb/home/payments/exch...

Also this is for notes only.  Coins for many ex-EU currencies are not able to be exchanged any longer. They also hold no value as collectors items either, and this is likely to remain the same without our lifetime (I checked with a friend who is an avid coin collector)

For some you may be able to do it by post, but it is best to check the with the central bank's homepage for the currencies that you have in order to ensure you have the accurate info (as I have seen this question asked even as recently as this week where some seriously wrong answers have been issued!)

Good luck