The euro made an historic leap into the wallets, cash tills and piggy banks of the eurozone's 300m citizens.

Months of preparations for what has been a far-reaching political project and the largest logistical challenge of its kind, culminated at midnight on New Year's Eve when the coins and banknotes of the single currency became legal tender and entered general circulation. The European Commission on Tuesday said the changeover had been proceeding smoothly. "No news is good news," commented spokesman Gerassimos Thomas. Although not every single ATM had worked, people had been able to withdraw euros in all eurozone countries, he said.

Three years after its birth as a virtual currency - a financial instrument used by banks and traders, but not ordinary citizens - the euro has now become a tangible reality shared by the inhabitants of 12 countries.

From across Europe, FT reporters share their experiences of the new currency. Use the links on the map above to share the first days of the euro.

Also - E-day: Views from across the eurozone - more.

Fireworks and queues welcome the euro

Across the eurozone, people rushed to cash machines amid the fireworks that marked the start of 2002 to get their first historic taste of the new banknotes. Despite the inevitable glitches as some ATMs remained out of order, the mood was generally jovial as people enjoyed the historic moment.

In Frankfurt, the home of the European Central Bank, a giant euro sculpture was lit up amid fireworks and music. Eager pedestrians huddled round the ATMs in the city centre to be among the first to get their hands on the new notes.

In Helsinki, hundreds braved freezing temperatures to queue up to exchange markka for euros at the Bank of Finland, which opened its doors between midnight and 1.30 am. The bank laid on live music, hot drinks and gingerbread biscuits with the euro symbol to keep those waiting warm. Jussi Uusivuori, who was the first in the queue at 10pm with his 10-year old son Mikael, said: "Many Finns feel this finally puts them in the heartland of Europe."

"We are at an historic moment. We have reached the culmination of European monetary integration; the most decisive step ever taken towards a more united Europe," said ECB board member Eugenio Domingo Solans in Frankfurt just before midnight at one of the plethora of events and celebrations taking place throughout the eurozone to mark the changeover.

Wim Duisenberg, president of the ECB, hailed the incoming European currency at his final public appearance before E-Day on Monday, while Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, called the changeover "a great day for Europe."

Business as usual?

With most shops closed on New Year's Day, and people busier partying than spending during the night, the euro transition's first real test will not come until Wednesday, when normal working life resumes.

Some 15bn banknotes worth more than E630bn and 51bn coins worth almost E16bn have been delivered to banks and retailers in preparation for E-Day. Both the creation of the cash and its transportation to locations everywhere from Sligo to Porto to Lapland, have passed off remarkably glitch-free, given the scale of the undertaking.

But teething problems are nevertheless expected as customers and retailers struggle to get used to the new notes and coins.

One early glitch happened at the Pompidou Centre in Paris which was forced on Monday to open its doors for free for most of the day following problems with the new euro software for its electronic till system.

And despite generally smooth operations during the first night, by no means all ATMs were ready to dispense the euro notes on January 1. Finland, for example, has faced criticism for not "frontloading" its cash machines with euros in the run-up to January 1. Many machines in central Helsinki were still dispensing Finnish markka early on Tuesday. In Amsterdam, as revellers emerged from discotheques where they had still been spending guilders, and went to cash machines to get euros, many were disappointed as some machines remained out of commission. Similar examples occurred in Paris, where one ATM run by BRED, a subsidiary of Banque Populaire, had a note telling customers that, in order to ensure that money could be withdrawn on New Year's eve, the ATM would provide French francs until the end of the week. Another, run by La Poste, the French post office, gave francs without further explanation. The initial days after the changeover will place much pressure on shops, which will have to handle both the euro and the outgoing local currencies in parallel during the first weeks of the new year. Although customers can use cards as per usual, cash payments are likely to take longer, not least because of people's unfamiliarity with the coins and banknotes. In some countries, complicated conversion rates between the outgoing national currency and the euro will add to the confusion.

The ECB's Mr Solans on Monday night appealed to the public to avoid making "mixed payments" and to pay as much as possible using exact change in order to facilitate transactions.

Retailers' preparedness to give change in euros from January 1 also will be patchy initially. "I'll just handle this whole thing as it comes, people are just going to have to be flexible and accept DM if it comes to the crunch," commented a Frankfurt taxi driver, who had no supplies of euros, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Lingering challenges

Many customers fear retailers will use the changeover to push through price hikes as they convert prices into euros, although there is also much evidence to suggest that competition (fuelled by the ease with which cross-border price comparisons can be made) will suppress inflationary pressures.

There is also concern that counterfeiters and tricksters will exploit the initial confusion. Although the euro notes are equipped with state-of-the-art security features that make them extremely difficult to fake, imitations could get past poorly-informed people, especially outside the eurozone.

Meanwhile, public acceptance of the euro has grown gradually but steadily, even in Germany, where the population has been particularly wary of seeing the stable and strong D-Mark give way to a currency that has proved weak on the international currency markets. The euro has lost about 25 per cent of its value against the US dollar since its birth at the start of 1999, and even a return to parity with the US currency (from current levels of about 0.89 to the dollar) appears elusive in 2002.

Still, with the euro an undeniable, irreversible reality in the lives of more than 300m people, it is assured of increasing acceptance despite any initial hitches in its physical introduction.

Additional reporting by Raphael Minder in Paris, Christopher Brown-Humes in Helsinki, and Daniel Dombey in Brussels.

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