Everyone hopes the euro notes will last longer than the euro carpets – physically, and, especially, in purchasing power, of course.

One week after the 45 euro carpets were laid down in Republic Street, just over half of them – depicting different denominations of euro coins from the 13 eurozone countries – were removed yesterday after they suffered considerable damage.

The intention had been educational – the carpets were part of an information and familiarisation exercise organised by the European Parliament Information Office in Valletta and the National Euro Changeover Committee and laid in Republic Street on Friday 14 December.

However, it seems that the timing was not right – the wet weather made them soft and vulnerable, obviously, and the large number of people going to Valletta for their Christmas shopping was too much. Wear and tear has a limit, obviously.

In fact there had been many remarks that the rain-soaked carpets would not last long and yesterday a reader called The Malta Independent saying that the carpets laid between the old opera house and the law courts had been removed – that must be the most walked stretch of road in Malta, Republic Street being the country’s premier stretch of real estate.

A spokesperson for the European Parliament’s Valletta Office said that the euro carpets had made an impact on the tens of thousands of shoppers who walked into Valletta during the busy Christmas shopping period.

“Among the positive comments received have been that the project is very original and that it is reaching a very wide audience,” he said. Obviously the impact is now limited.

However, he added, the heavy traffic of pedestrians had left its mark and some carpets have had to be removed.

“They were, of course, not meant to be a permanent fixture.”

But obviously they were expected to be more permanent than the rain allowed.