To be sure, the reality of the euro even in the 11 participating nations remains a bookkeeping and securities-trading phenomenon until 2002, when euro bills and coins will come into circulation, changing hands across shop counters. In this country, acceptance of the euro started for the most part with the banks, which risked losing international business if they were not prepared. The Swiss franc, the pillar of this small country's financial might, may be too crucial a strut of Swiss prosperity to be jettisoned any time soon. Still, the reasons for the enthusiasm for the euro seem clear. So it is quickly becoming a two-currency nation.
Manufacturers are ready to do business in euros, hotels to take payment in euros.
Big retailers like Migros AG, a kind of Swiss Wal-Mart, are programming cash registers for both currencies. Rudolf Baer, chief executive of Bank Julius Baer, expects that East European countries lined up to join the European Union in the next few years will take precedence. Switzerland, whose voters rejected a move toward European Union membership in a referendum in 1992, does not have a realistic chance of joining the European Union, he said, before 2010. One big concern in the meantime is that the Swiss franc could grow too strong. If, at any point, a weakening euro spurs a flight of investment capital into Switzerland, the Swiss franc's value would rise, making the country's exports more expensive and undermining growth.