Hard Ecu
Proposal from the British government in 1990 to avoid the single European Currency. The Hard ECU would have been a common – not a single - currency, and circulate side by side with national currencies.
That's the course Britain has chosen, in proposing the hard Ecu as a common European currency alongside national currencies, so that people can choose which to use. Ours is the only fully worked-out proposal for the next stage which has been tabled and I pay tribute to the City's part in developing it. - Margaret Thatcher