It may be a midget, but it covers a lot of ground. The copper one cent piece, the new European currency's smallest and lowest-valued coin, is the one that circulates quickest, a study has found.

Dietrich Stoyan, professor of statistics at Bergakademie Freiberg Technical University in the eastern state of Saxony, asked Germans to report their first contact with a foreign euro coin. While paper money is identical throughout the euro zone, the eight denominations of coins have different reverse sides depending on the country of origin.

Collectively, they are a hodgepodge. Finland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece have embossed their coins with either harps, heads, flowers, buildings or leaves. Yet to come are exotic mintages from San Marino, Monaco and the Vatican.

"Theoretically, the distribution of euro coins in Germany should eventually reflect the national mintages' percentage of the total number of coins in circulation," says Mr. Stoyan. But euro fans have been disappointed so far -- not many foreign euro coins have turned up.

During the first three weeks of January, the first period studied, Austrian coins were the ones sighted most often, such as the one euro piece graced by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As Mr. Stoyan points out, "The frequency of Austrian coins can be explained both by Austria's proximity to Germany and the winter vacation season."

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See map "Number of foreign euro coins that have circulated in Germany between Jan. 1 - Jan. 20"

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