January the 12th, 2023 - Eurozone Croatia is now finally a reality, and while the country grapples with the new currency, price hikes and attempts to get rid of kuna left in sock drawers and under mattresses, one Zagreb cafe owner is sick to the back teeth of being paid in mountains of lipa coins for coffee.
Many people thought they were prepared for the birth of Eurozone Croatia, but it seems as if most of us have forgotten the unholy amounts of rather pointless lipa coins we all have lying around at home, in jacket pockets and more than likely under the living room rug. These tiny golden coins which have more or less always been somewhat good for nothing are now an even bigger thorn in the side than they were when the kuna was the official currency. Cafe owners are now being bombarded with them.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Zvonimir Varga writes, there are only a few days left during which people can continue to pay for items and services in kuna and lipa, and some people are using the opportunity to get rid of excess coins while it lasts.
While banks and other financial institutions are happy to transfer small denominations such as lipa into a bank account without any major problems, cafe owners are faced with a bigger problem. Some people have decided to make the recent cafe-based nightmare of ''becoming an unwilling exchange office'' come true leave all of their lipa change on their tables. As previously mentioned, even when the kuna was the country's official tender, nobody was a fan of lipa coins, people are even less of a fan now that the kuna is set to enter the history books entirely.
To make matters worse for cafe owners and staff, some people simply leave their money on the table and leave after having a coffee, and one Zagreb cafe owner from the Jarun lake area has had more than enough of having lipa coins thrown at him.
After finishing their drinks, one couple left a pile of kuna, lipa and even equally annoying euro cents on their table and left while the waiter was busy doing something else. The staff of the cafe were not even that annoyed by the fact that they ended up being paid like that as such, but by the fact that the couple left the coins in this way and got up and left.
"What kind of people are they, it looks like they ran away" asked one of the waiters, while another concluded: "This way of paying is shameful!".
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