Come 1 January, when the glitter and the alcohol-induced euphoria have worn off, and Malta is well and truly inside the eurozone, the ordinary Maltese will have to come to terms with the new currency.

And despite all the hype, the blue carpets in Republic Street, the euro clocks and what have you, despite all the preparations by the banks, the NECC, the plastic money handed out to children, there are already signs that the euro changeover will have some scary, chaotic moments.

Take the public buses, used by a substantial number of the Maltese population as their form of transport. When, early last week, a Smash TV 7 News team asked bus drivers at the Valletta terminus how many euro coins they would give to someone who tenders 50c (Maltese currency) for their 20c (E0.47) bus ticket, it did not find one bus driver who could give them the right answer.

Because after midnight on New Year’s Eve, people will be able to pay for their purchases with Maltese currency or the euro but they must be given change in euro coins.

The reason behind this is to enable the Maltese system to remove all coins and notes in Maltese currency as soon as possible, thus helping the changeover move as fast as possible.

A legal notice that will be published in the coming days will define the dual circulation period and also lay down the rules outlined above that payments may be made in Maltese lira or euros but change has to be tendered solely in euros “unless there are material reasons which make it difficult to give change in euros”.’

It will also stipulate that after two warnings, transgressors could face a fine of Lm750 (E1747.03) and an additional fine of Lm75 (E174.7) per additional day.

Whether the fines can serve as a deterrent to bus drivers and make them learn and assimilate the new currency remains to be seen.

An NECC spokesman told this newspaper: “ADT representatives attended a ‘Train the trainer’ course in September. The trainee together with ATP organised 19 sessions of training for all the drivers. Attendance should have been 30 persons per session. All bus owners and bus drivers were invited to attend.

“However not all drivers attended. Extra lessons were organised for those who failed to attend the scheduled meetings and still no one attended these lessons.

“Training included information on Security Features and giving change during dual circulation period.”

The extreme reluctance to learn anything about the euro was very evident when the 7 News team was interviewing the bus drivers. Come 1 January, this will inevitably snarl the whole process of paying for the bus tickets, and will surely render even more harrowing the adoption of the new currency to those sectors of the population more at risk – precisely those who use public transport and those with limited educational backgrounds.

What may, at the end, happen, could be that in a very Maltese way the bus drivers and the public adopt a way out which could see the bus drivers giving change in Maltese currency until the public has run out of them and/or until the bus drivers run out of change.

This could also happen in the small retail outlets where staples are sold, not in the big shops where there are sophisticated cash registers. The problem, it is held, lies in giving the right change for Maltese currency, as there would be no problem for those paying in euro.

The NECC spokesman also told this newspaper: “As regards small retail outlets, the NECC employed 76 euro assistants who carried out 40,000 visits to outlets all over Malta.

“Since September, each Euro Assistant has been provided with a Training Kit for the onsite training of retailers. In addition, various regional training sessions were organised. It is also an ongoing exercise since a lot of training is being done on demand.

“Training is standard and includes euro cash handling, security features of the euro banknotes and coins, and all other essential elements of the changeover. Also, any other companies that had not joined the FAIR Initiative were still provided training if they requested it.”

Meanwhile, the NECC is encouraging citizens to pay the exact amount in the first few days of January, and if possible to pay in euro to facilitate the transition.

One possibly additional problem is the fact that the dual circulation period for Malta will be the longest in any euro changeover so far. When the euro was first introduced in 12 countries, the local currency was withdrawn from circulation after 10 days, in Slovenia after 15 days.

In Malta’s case it was Cabinet which decided the dual circulation period should last a whole month because, as the NECC spokesman put it, “to give more time to citizens due to the fact that Malta has the highest amount of cash in circulation per capita among the EU Member States”.

In two weeks’ time this well-intentioned decision could well end up prolonging, rather than reducing, the pain of the changeover.