ESTONIA-EU-ECONOMY-EUROZONE-CURRENCY-FOREX-EURO

A Estonian cashier puts Estonian crowns and euro notes in a cash desk in a supermarket in Tallinn on January 1, 2011. Estonia adopted the European single currency at midnight, ringing in 2011 as the 17th member of the eurozone, a bloc threatened by bailouts in Greece and Ireland and debt woes in Portugal and Spain. As a spectacular fireworks show lit up the sky over Tallinn, the 2004 Baltic EU entrant of 1.3 million which broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 bade a reluctant farewell to its kroon, adopted in 1992 to replace the Soviet ruble. While the centre-right government of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip has championed the switch to the euro as economic good sense despite the eurozone's turmoil, replacing Estonia's highly symbolic kroon has received a muted welcome among average Estonians. = ESTONIA OUT = (Photo credit should read RAIGO PAJULA/AFP/GettyImages)