ISI - International Statistical Institute
Newsletter Volume 26, No. 3 (78) 2002
A Request for Assistance in the Analysis
of the Euro Coin Mixing ProcessSince January 1 of this year, the Institute of Stochastics of the Technical University of Bergakademie Freiberg (Germany) is carrying out a statistical analysis of the mixing process of Euro coins in Germany. Each of the 12 countries participating in the Monetary Union mints its own variety of Euro coins. At the moment, about 5% of the coins circulating in Germany are of foreign origin. By the end of this year, we expect this number to have risen to 10% (see also www.euro.tu-freiberg.de/en). In a similar manner, colleagues in Amsterdam are studying the Euro coin mixing in the Netherlands and Belgium. As may be expected, they report a higher percentage of coins of foreign origin. On the occasion of the EMS meeting in Prague, I asked statisticians from all Euro countries to participate. I repeat that request here.
Please report to us by the middle of November as a snapshot the number of foreign coins of 1 Euro only as observed in your country. Samples of some size can be obtained by looking into the cash register of your favourite restaurant or supermarket, or by buying rolls of 1 Euro coins at your local bank (and selling them back after analysis)
Please report your results to us via www.euro.tu-freiberg.de/en. This connects you to the Eurosite, where you can report conveniently on a simple form. In this way we can study the mixing process in all of Euro-Europe. We will fit parameters of an analytical model to the data, allowing us to make predictions about the development of the mixing process for each of the Euro-countries.
Furthermore, some statistical data concerning the travel behaviour of the people of your country would be helpful too. You might ask the travel board union or your national statistical office for the number of trips made by people from your country to other countries per year. For Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg we have already obtained estimates of the number of foreign trips. Commuters crossing borders also play a role. We would be grateful if you could find such numbers or estimates for Austria, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, which are still lacking. Please send this data directly to stoyan@orion.hrz.tu-freiberg.de. We are very grateful for your co-operation.
Dietrich Stoyan
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