Euro states; it was not a currency in its own right. They could not be set earlier, because the ECU depended on the closing exchange rate of the non-euro currencies (principally the pound sterling) that day. The procedure used to fix the conversion rate between the Greek drachma and the euro was different, since the euro by then was already two years old. While the conversion rates for the initial eleven currencies were determined only hours before the euro was introduced, the conversion rate for the Greek drachma was fixed several months beforehand. The currency was introduced in non-physical form (traveller's
History of the euro 50,000 pay phones to take Deutsche Mark coins in 2005, at least on a temporary basis. Callers were allowed to use DM coins, at least initially, with the Mark pegged to equal one euro, almost twice the usual rate. In France, receipts still indicate the value of products in the legacy currency along with the euro value, as do receipts in Slovenia. In other eurozone countries this has long been considered unnecessary. In June 2008, "The New York Times" reported that many merchants in the French town of Collobrières, in Provence, choose to accept exchangeable franc notes. After dropping to