Nostalgia may be the motive for Germans holding onto nearly 12.9 billion in obsolete coin and paper deutschmarks, according to a story published online Dec. 25, 2014, by Russia Today’s online news website, rt.com.

Deutschmarks were abolished in 2002 when Germany entered the Eurozone. 

Germans hold an estimated 169 million notes and 24 billion coins of various denominations, mostly lower value bills and coins, but altogether an equivalent of €6.6 billion, the German central bank, Deutsche Bundesbank, estimated.

Old stashes of hoarded marks are regularly discovered during renovations of old houses and turned in. Such deutschmark conversions amounted to €52.1 million in 2014, according to the Russia Today posting.

According to a poll conducted by the Emnid institute for Postbank, 74 percent of Germans with deutschmarks in their pocket see a sentimental value in them. Some 24 percent keep part of their savings in the old currency, while 22 percent simply forgot to convert their assets, the poll showed.