Peter Glover writes:

Rumours that British firm De La Rue Currency, the world’s largest banknote printer, has started printing drachmas in anticipation of Greece’s euro exit have been rife for a while. However, I have received information that a De La Rue insider confirms that not only has the Hampshire-based company printed drachma, it has already printed substantial reserves of all 17 pre-euro banknote currencies, including the Deutschmark.

While there is no way of independently verifying this, it would make sense for a number of reasons. Not least the inevitability that ‘something's gotta give’, and soon, in Euroland. And no one can predict the extent of the economic fallout. De La Rue’s CEO, Tim Cobbold, has already stated that to print new currency in the space of a couple of weeks “would be impossible”. Indeed the sheer number of banknotes required to replace a national currency requires strategic forward planning. It would not be at all surprising therefore if a currency Plan B was in place in the event of a euro break-up, or in lieu of an exit by the Greeks. And I am advised that De La Rue is currently in an even higher state of information lockdown than usual.