PARIS and AMSTERDAM -- Residents at least two euro zone countries got a head start on withdrawing newly minted euro notes when ATMs malfunctioned and began issuing the currency ahead of its Jan. 1 launch.
Cash machines in the 12 European Union countries adopting the euro aren't allowed to issue euros until after midnight New Year's Eve, when the currency becomes legal tender.
In Saint-Julien de Concelles, a small town in western France, a Credit Mutuel bank ATM began dispensing euro notes on Dec. 29 according to LCI television and France-Info radio reports. The machine was reportedly taken off-line on Dec. 30.
"I came yesterday and withdrew euros," an ATM user told LCI television on Dec. 30. "That's why I came back today."
Credit Mutuel couldn't be reached for comment, since offices were closed over the weekend.
Most ATMs in France have been preprogrammed to stop issuing francs Jan. 1 and switch to cassettes filled with euros. In some countries, banks plan to shut down ATMs during the day Dec. 31 and manually refill their machines with the new European currency.
Separately, French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius said on Dec. 30 that 85 percent of France's ATMs were set to begin issuing euros Jan. 1. The remainder are to be euro-ready by Jan. 4, he said.
Fabius said that France's banks, post offices and shop owners had already received some 550 million euro notes and seven billion euro coins.
In Amsterdam, the first euro notes were distributed by accident on Dec. 27 at an ING Bank ATM, an ING spokeswoman told Dow Jones newspapers.
Three euro notes were dispensed as part of larger cash withdrawals at an ATM in Blerick in the southern province of Limburg, spokeswoman Roelina Bolding said. She said the bank's cash carrier had mistakenly installed a euro-filled cassette belonging to another bank at the ING Bank machine.
The bank traced back the transactions and the ATM users involved returned the euro notes.
