Estonia could be the last new entrant for some years when it becomes the 17th euro zone member tomorrow, with the club's deepening crisis of confidence likely to put off larger eastern European states from joining for up to a decade.
Crowds queued at some banks in the snow-blanketed capital, Tallinn, on Friday to exchange cash, mainly coins, in a move the small Baltic state of 1.3 million hopes will mark the end of its struggles since the 2008 financial crisis.
Joining the euro caps a drive for integration with the West and away from the influence of Russia that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Estonia is the first former Soviet state to adopt the single currency, and neighbours Latvia and Lithuania hope to follow in 2014, cementing independence regained from Moscow in 1991.
The government, battling its way out of a recession that knocked almost 14 percent off gross domestic product last year, hopes the move will shore up interest of Nordic banks, add to its appeal for other investors and make borrowing easier and more secure for people.
"Our Estonian kroons are really beautiful bank notes, but, unfortunately, investors cannot trust those beautiful bank notes as much as they can trust euros," Prime Minister Andrus Ansip told a news conference.
"It will be really beneficial to join as soon as possible, and now it will happen," added Ansip, who will be one of the first to take euros out of a cash machine at midnight.
Polls have shown support for the switch at just over 50 per cent, but most people seem to be taking the change in stride after 18 years with their own currency.
"I love my Estonian kroons, and it will be very sad to see them go. But I imagine in six months I will like the euro as well," said Sergei Nester (33), a property broker, after changing some coins. The kroon will be converted at the rate of 15.6466 at which the currency was pegged to the euro.
Celebrations will include European Union monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn and the prime ministers of Latvia and Lithuania.
The attitude is more sceptical in Poland, Hungary and other central and eastern European EU members. They have all promised to join the euro zone one day but want to see how the debt problems of Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal are solved.
They also fear that losing the flexibility of their exchange rates will make them less competitive and less able to withstand financial ructions.
The debt crisis has also undermined the idea that being a euro zone member guarantees lower borrowing costs. In contrast to the Poles and others, the currencies of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have been pegged to the euro for years.