Now yes, goodbye to the 'blonde': The peseta ceases to be money and becomes a souvenir

"Look, the coins from when mom was little," explains a young woman to a boy of about 10 who looks with perplexity at a handful of duros and pesetas spread out on the counter. For him they are worthless pieces of metal, although his parents, at his age, would surely have thrown themselves at least on the 25-peseta coin, the top of the string of thousands of spinning tops. But for the Spaniards, to pay again with 'blondes' is to open a trunk of memories. Fernando Losada knows this well, owner of the Madrid stationery that bears his surname, one of the very few businesses that this week still allowed its customers to buy with the last Spanish currency, in legal tender from October 1868 to February 2002. In fact , he points out, in the last week he has sold more in pesetas than in euros.

“We started this initiative in 2007, and what was a two-month campaign has lasted until today. Many people call you to ask because they want to tell you the story of the money they have. Or worse, you can't change it because it's too old and they think you're cheating on them. A man called me because he read that we paid 74 euros for each peseta," Losada tells ABC, who last Friday definitively banished the peseta from the store founded by his father, José, in 1965. An in extremis farewell, since the Bank of Spain will stop changing the currency this June 30. According to the latest data from the agency, at the end of May 1,585 million euros remained to be exchanged (785 million in change and 800 in bills), 3.2% of the money that was in circulation when the euro arrived.

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“A lot of older people come who have found pesetas in a pocket, a jar or a book. They are not usually large amounts, it is rare that they come with a 5,000 bill, for example. This is exactly what has happened to Pilar, who found a lot of 'junk' at her house and, because she didn't keep it, she decided to go get some gifts for her grandchildren. "I had these coins saved for years, I don't know what for, so let's see which ones are still worth it and what I can buy," she says. "I don't change this one, it belongs to the Virgin of Africa and they say it brings luck," she adds while Fernando, calculator in hand, analyzes each piece. Pilar doesn't have more than eight euros, but she takes a couple of coloring books.

Teresa has also been encouraged to spend a few pesetas, inheritance from her father, in the neighborhood stationery store, lined to the ceiling with shelves full of books, notebooks and pencils. «I have even found money from the Republic. I barely had eleven euros, but I bought a book. So I still have a memory of my father and I help the neighborhood stores, since I have been self-employed for many years and I know what it means », she points out. He doesn't linger too long, because at the 'stationery for pesetas' the queue of customers grows little by little.