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BERLIN, Monday (Reuters)

The euro's launch may be causing headaches for cashiers and heartache for nationalists around Europe, but the single currency has dumped windfall profits into the laps of an unsuspecting group: beggars.

Many of the continent's homeless and penniless have discovered that Europeans are surprisingly eager to empty their pockets of their old coins to make room for the shiny new euros. Beggars report a sharp upturn in donations to their tin cups.

"Everyone loves the euro now and they all want to get rid of their German marks as fast as they can," said Kai Twealing, 20. "It's been great."

Twealing, a wandering craftsman who relies on the generosity of strangers, said he got more than 50 marks ($22) in handouts from people while hitch-hiking across Germany on Sunday -- about 10 times the usual amount for such a journey.

"A couple of people came up to me, handed me 10 mark notes and said 'here, take this. I don't need it anymore,'" Twealing said. "It's money they don't want to carry around any more."

In Ireland, a survey of city centre beggars in Dublin by the Evening Herald newspaper found most reported their takings had increased. The daily said the rise was due to a combination of people offloading loose pence and sharing their first euros with the less fortunate in a spirit of seasonal goodwill.

"People are giving the same as before in euros but they've been emptying their pockets of Irish change," said one 17-year-old, Lisa. "It's been quite good lately."

In the Netherlands, the editor of the local homeless people's magazine "Z", said business was booming.

"I saw a newspaper headline saying 'Dutch want to get rid of the guilder as fast as possible', and that's what our sellers are noticing too," said editor Jeroen Van Rooy.

"They are getting a lot of tips in guilders."

In Greece, beggars who ventured out on the streets of Athens on Monday after a three-day cold snap found their cups filling up with both drachmas and euros. They said people were being generous -- due to the holiday spirit and the euro switchover.

"Drachmas are okay but euros are better," said a one-armed beggar on the central Voukourestiou Street who said his name was Costas. "I prefer euros because they're stronger."

In Rome, nearly four in five Italians said they would give their last lire to homeless people and beggars, according to a survey by the Codacons consumer group. The survey also found 90 percent planned to spend their first euros in typical Italian fashion: on cappuccino, espresso or cigarettes.

In Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder warmed the hearts of the nation's panhandlers.

"The first beggar who comes up to me and says 'Hey, guv, can you spare a euro?' gets my first euro," he said on December 31.

After picking up his first batch of 200 euros from a bank machine on New Year's day, Schroeder tossed a two-euro coin into an accordion player's basket. He also gave his last five-mark ($2) coin to a man selling the homeless newspaper "Asphalt."

But one beggar in Paris said he had not yet noticed an increase in francs landing in his cap.

In Britain, which is not part of the euro zone, beggars were nevertheless not being choosy.

A homeless man sitting near London's Covent Garden shopping area was spotted wearing a sign saying: "Euros accepted but pounds preferred." 

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