The chiringuitos on the Costa Tropical are not happy bunnies over a Guardia Civil warning on their Twitter account about foreign coins being handed over amongst change.

The Guardia Civil had alerted people to the fact that there have been quite a few cases of chiringuito customers getting foreign coins amongst their change, worth a lot less than a Euro; a Venezuelan Bolivar for example, without realising it.

The Chairman of the Asociación de Chiringuitos de la Costa Tropical, Paco Trujillo, criticised the G.C. for singling out chiringuitos because this happens in just about any shop, bar or restaurant. The message implies, he considers, that chiringuitos are “swindlers.”

Such is the annoyance produced by this comment that the Chairman is going to send an official letter to the G.C.H.Q., demanding a “rectification” as it is unjustly prejudicial for the sector.

The official G.C. Twitter account has 1.24 million followers and this particular tweet has been shared 2,500 times, so it is no wonder that the chiringuito association are seriously miffed.

The said association represents 65 chiringuitos on the Costa Tropical and according to the Chairman they have not received any complaints about this kind of thing – they had sent a memorandum to all their members asking for news of any cases, but the response has been negative.

The association has also used the same social-media platform; i.e., Twitter, to express their annoyance

The Guardia Civil message was to alert tourists to the practice of passing off Venezuelan Bolivars for euros, which works both ways; i.e., people paying with this coinage so as not to be left holding the ‘hot potato’ once they had inadvertently received one.

Finally, back in February the Guardia Civil published a tweet that a Jamaican 20-dollar coin and the 5-peso, Dominican coin had been circulating amongst euro currency and that the Bolivar and the Argentinean Peso are similar to the one and two-euro coins.

(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)