Cyprus and Malta will replace their national currencies with the euro on New Year's Day. The two countries will be the fourteenth and fifteenth European nation to do so. And they couldn't have picked a better time. The euro is strong, and on its last trading day before the New Year, it buys 1.47 US dollars, 0.74 British pounds, 1.66 Swiss francs, or 9.44 Swedish kronor. The graph (from the European Central Bank) shows the euro's development against the US dollar since it was first introduced on 1 January 1999.