Hi Don - d'accord! Eurogatherings in the UK would be less expensive for us continentals.

Liz - that's the way of prices: they always increase. Some dealers took the chance to increase their prices more than usual; others waited till they had to change their menus to € and so avoided additional printing costs. Others changed their prices in the government ratio between mark and €.
Now guess who lost customers, and who gained?.

All in all: A common currency WILL lead to a common economy system, not immediately, but by and by. And as I said in a post some years ago: The costs of a common currency system are cheaper than the next paneuropean war.