Euro banknotes

Denominations of the notes range from €5 to €500 and, unlike euro coins, the design is identical across the whole of the eurozone, although they are issued and printed in various member states.

According to European Central Bank estimates, in July 2023, there were about 29.624 billion banknotes in circulation around the eurozone, with a total value of about €1.569 trillion.

[4] This series does not have a €500 note, as the ECB have decided to permanently cease its production over concerns that it could facilitate illicit activities.

[2] In 2009, the Lisbon Treaty formalised the euro's political authority, the Eurogroup, alongside the European Central Bank.

Each has a distinctive colour and size,[17] and displays examples of a historical European architectural style:[17][18] windows or gateways on the obverse, and bridges on the reverse.

[48] In the first and Europa series, the Azores, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Madeira, alba, Réunion, and the Canary Islands, overseas territories of the eurozone member states, which also use the euro, were shown under the map in separate boxes.

[5] The series also bears the name of the currency in capital letters, but in three scripts: Latin (EURO), Greek (ΕΥΡΩ), and Cyrillic (ЕВРО).

The order in which the acronyms are shown is determined by the same principles as for Series 1:[46] the language of Bulgaria (България/Bulgaria[47]) precedes that of Germany (Deutschland); EKP now precedes ΕΚΤ due to the accession of Estonia (Eesti); and the languages of Croatia (Hrvatska), Hungary (Magyarország), Malta and Poland (Polska) trail the list.

[73] In 2011, Dutch artist Robin Stam and the town of Spijkenisse in the Netherlands built seven bridges of colored concrete after the designs on the seven euro banknotes.

Still, between the official descriptions and independent discoveries made by observant users, it is thought that the euro notes have at least eleven different security features, which are: (looked at from the reverse, a dark bar is 1, a bright bar 0) The European Central Bank intends to redesign the notes every seven or eight years.

[88] The new series includes slight changes, notably the inclusion of the face of the mythological princess Europa in the watermark and in the hologram stripe.

[89] New production and anti-counterfeiting techniques are employed on the new notes, but the design shares the colours of the first series and the theme of bridges and arches.

)[18] The Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet features on the Europa series banknotes, as a result of Bulgaria joining the European Union in 2007.

The modified 5 euro note features the initials of the European Central Bank in each of the contemporary EU member languages in a column on the left-hand side of the obverse.

[93] The full design of the Europa series 10 euro note was revealed on 13 January 2014 and it entered circulation on 23 September 2014.

[94] The full design of the Europa series 20 euro banknote was revealed on 24 February 2015, [95][96] and it was launched on 25 November 2015.

"[101] On 4 May 2016, the European Central Bank announced that a Europa series 500 euro banknote would not be released, due to fears of facilitating criminal activity.

[106] As a result, the design of the first euro banknotes include several characteristics which help both the blind and partially sighted to use the notes with greater confidence.

[107] ECB President Christine Lagarde stated in a press release that it was time to "review the look of [the] banknotes and make them more relatable to the public".

On 30 November 2023, the ECB announced that the new theme for future banknotes had been narrowed down to either "European culture" or "rivers and birds".

[109] A design contest is expected to be launched in 2025, and the public will be able to vote from a shortlist in 2026, with the Governing Council making a final decision that same year.

It is a task of the Eurosystem to ensure an efficient and smooth supply of euro notes and to maintain their integrity throughout the eurozone.

[3] The July 2023 breakdown is as follows: Figures since 2012 The European Central Bank publishes information on the amount of counterfeit banknotes removed from circulation every 6 months.

[112] In 2009, the ECB reported the highest-ever amount of counterfeits with 860,000 removed items, a rate of 64 per million banknotes in circulation.

This, together with the gradual decline after 2013 suggests that the improved security features on the Europa edition make it increasingly difficult to create a convincing fake.

[17] (1) checksum of the 11 digits without the letter (2) Denmark, the United Kingdom and Sweden presently do not use the Euro, but had these serial number prefixes reserved for the first series of notes.

The first banknotes bearing the "H" letter, produced in France specifically on behalf of Slovenia, were witnessed no sooner than April 2008.

[127] The serial number begins with a letter indicating the printer, which is broadly similar to the first series (Z for Belgium, Y for Greece, etc.).

[128] However, as the code indicates the printer, rather than the issuing national central bank, certain letters have been reassigned from NCBs which do not maintain their own printing facilities.

In 2015, French entrepreneur Richard Faille developed the idea of souvenir euro notes made to the same standards as the currency, but without value, to commemorate places or events.