As 12 European countries said goodbye to their old currencies on January 1, millions of European citizens are coming to terms with history’s most ambitious currency swap with the help of Hong Kong-made currency converters.

The euro which replaces the French franc, German deutschemark and Italian lire as well as other European Union member currencies will be shared by 300 million people and will become the most widely used common currency since the Roman Empire.

Hong Kong based design product manufacture, Lee Handerson and Cedar Base Electronics Ltd, are two leading enterprises that have played a significant role in supplying European Governments and European companies with millions of the devices, which range in price from HK$4 (US$50 cents) to HK$116 (US$15).

The converters, which are made in a variety of colours and vary in size from key ring, handy credit-card sized devices to 30-centimetre (12 inches) high desk-top models allow users to convert their old currencies to euros with a simple press of a button.

General manager Cedar Base Electronics Stephen Liao said his company began supplying currency converters to Europe in 1998. Orders peaked in 1999 and increased again throughout 2001. The company supplied converters to most of the European Union members with the main markets focused on France, Germany and Italy.

“In the early days the people who were ordering the converters were mainly promotion companies buying units on behalf of their clients which were given away as incentives or loyalty rewards,” Mr Liao said.

Orders during that time was worth around HK$78 million ($US10 million). To date, Cedar has exported about 30 million items.

Demand gradually increased to include governments and their finance and tourism departments, banks, insurance companies, car manufacturers and fuel companies such as ESSO and BP who distributed the converters from petrol stations. The French Ministry of Finance and Economy placed one of Cedar’s largest orders.

Mr Liao added that Hong Kong’s respected reputation for designing and manufacturing attractive low-cost high quality items makes it a natural choice for purchasers sourcing this and many other types of items.

“The quality of products designed in Hong Kong and manufactured in China continues to improve almost on a weekly basis. This competitive advantage matched with speedy delivery times makes Hong Kong an economically attractive location from which to order, produce and manufacture products,” said Mr Liao.

At the heart of Handerson’s one-touch currency converter’s is convenience, reliability and simplicity says Homer Lee, Lee Handerson managing director.

The converters have been fitted with a specially designed Integrated Circuit (IC), which automatically converts any of the former European currencies to the fixed conversion rate of the euro.

“The simply one-touch process eliminates the need for mental arithmetic and speeds up financial transactions,” Mr Lee said.

The company began receiving orders in 1997. Major markets include France Germany and Italy. In November Italian firm Progetti Promozionali, on behalf of the Italian Government, placed an order for nine million one-touch units.