Despite adopting the euro a decade ago, Lithuanians continue to hold around 400 million litai, which equates to approximately 116 million euros, according to data from the Bank of Lithuania.
The Bank believes it is unlikely that all the litai will be exchanged, as some of the currency has been lost, taken abroad, or is kept as a souvenir. Editha Lisinskaite, the chief specialist of the Department of Policy, Emission, and Control at the Bank of Lithuania, shared that people often return litai when they stumble upon them in unexpected places, such as while dealing with inherited property.
She noted that litai have been found in various locations, including among clothing, books, gift envelopes, old purses, under floorboards, in walls, or buried in yards. “Money was also found in a tractor, in a farmhouse that people bought, and in a tree when it was cut down,” Lisinskaite said.
From January to November last year, the Bank of Lithuania exchanged litai for euros around 15 times a day, or roughly 3,500 exchanges in total. On average, people exchanged 14,000 litai (around 4,100 euros) per transaction. The largest amount exchanged in one transaction last year was 30,000 litai, or about 8,700 euros.
In a related development, the European Commission’s report from June of last year assessed the progress of six EU countries legally committed to adopting the euro—Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. According to the report, none of these countries currently meet all the criteria required to join the eurozone.
