But those who are eager to be pioneers in Europe's brave new monetary world will be able to experiment with a variety of transactions in euros once they recover from their New Year celebrations.

Those transactions include bank accounts, bank transfers, mortgages, credit card payments, traveller's cheques, personal cheques -- just about anything, that is, that doesn't involve cash.

Belgian banks, often in the vanguard in banking matters, have even announced that consumers can get the Proton prepaid electronic payment card -- used generally for inexpensive purchases such as phone calls -- in euros in 1999.

The number of merchants who will accept euro payments is likely to be small at first, with the percentage growing as consumers become more comfortable with the new currency.

Jim Murray, director of theEuropean Consumers' Organisation (BEUC) in Brussels, is one of the adventurous ones. He said he has already asked his bank to open a euro account for him, joking that he wanted to be a "leader of fashion."

"(I wanted to) start the process, to get into it early," he said.

However, he said others should not feel pressured to follow suit. "Because there's a transition period, it's something people can be relaxed about, at least at the beginning."

The EU has decided to introduce the single currency in stages to avoid an abrupt switchover. Eleven countries -- Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain -- will launch the euro on New Year's Day.

But they will not ditch their own currencies until mid-2002. Euro notes and coins will be issued from January 1 of that year.

During the transition period, euro zone residents will find a growing number of chances to try out the new currency.

For example, Bass Hotels & Resorts, saying it was "aheadof the game," announced in September it would allow guests at more than 300 Inter-Continental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotels to pay in euros from January 1.

It said they could make credit card or other electronic payments or use "eurocheques", the system that already allows Europeans to write cheques in multiple currencies.

Ian Graham, leader of Bass's euro steering committee, said the move responds partly to demand from corporate customers -- such as the German electronics giant Siemens -- which have announced they would prefer to be billed in euros in the next fiscal year.

"We can steal a March on a competitor that hasn't prepared as fully," he said.

Experts say it is difficult to predict how many companies will follow Bass's example. But Hasan Alemdar, director of Visa International's single currency unit, said the numbers are likely to be higher initially in areas that are major travel destinations and in countries such as France and Spain where the banking infrastructure iscentralised.

Based on a quick survey of banks in July, Europay International estimates that about 10 per cent of merchants will begin accepting euro payments in 1999, with an additional 40 per cent signing on in 2000, said Dominique Bichut, the company's euro programme coordinator.