Only joking

Nothing to see here, move on people…

Safaripark Beekse Bergen, near the Dutch town of Tilburg, boasts nine lions, 13 giraffes and a herd of almost 30 zebra. But this month the theme park reported sightings of an even more remarkable beast – a previously extinct specie, the Dutch guilder.

Thousands of guilders flooded into the park’s cash registers after it announced it would accept the former national currency for one weekend, in a promotion tied to the European Council summit earlier this month. At the ticket booth, thrifty locals dug into their coats to produce faded Fl 10 bills and jingling coins.

The guilder sale was a “comical stunt” to take advantage of the commotion around the euro, said a spokeswoman for the safari park’s parent company, Libema. But the promotion also tapped into the Dutch public’s widespread disillusionment with the euro and nostalgia for their old currency.

The FT link is here.