Euro

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There are many puzzles out there with the theme of the Euro currency, and Jean Claude Constantin has made another one to add to the collection. This one is very simple in design, but can be a little tricky to solve. Are you ready to to tackle the Euro challenge?

There's one thing that I like more about wire-only puzzles than the string ones - You can't make knots out of the wire puzzles, and thus it's much more unlikely to get stuck in the middle of the solving process. There are ways to get stuck anyway, but you have to be very creative to accomplish that.

The Euro puzzle is made from thick wire (3mm) and measures only 8.7cm in diameter. The design is made to resemble the shape of the Euro currency symbol, and the goal is to remove the ring (or to separate all three parts). The ring seems to be trapped between the two main parts, but a clever series of movements will be enough to solve it. Finding these moves, however, will be a bit tricky.

This puzzle reminds me of the classic Horseshoe puzzle, where you also have a ring trapped between two metal parts. The Horseshoe is much harder to solve for a beginner, but the solution is a bit different in the Euro puzzle. The two main parts are attached in a similar way as a hinge works. You can easily unfold the puzzle in 180º, but after that there's not much else to do. The key lies in the hinges, so my advice is to keep trying until you finally solve it.

It took me much more time to put the puzzle together in its original form than to take it apart. Figuring out how the puzzle works is the key to understand its mechanism, and until you do you won't be able to fully solve it.

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Closing Comments:

The Euro is a great puzzle that really gets you thinking in ways that you're not usually used to. I like that its all metal and no strings, so it's less frustrating to solve. You can lend it to a beginner and have no problems afterwards without knots for you to untie.

Availability: You can find a copy of the Euro puzzle at PuzzleMaster. As usual, Constantin has a lot of interesting puzzles, so be sure to check them out as well.