Everything about Euro Banknotes totally explained
Euro banknotes and
euro coins are the physical expression of the
euro (EUR or €), the single
currency of the
European Union. They are currently used by 15 of its 27 member states. The euro was formally established as a unit of exchange on
1 January,
1999 and the banknotes and coins entered circulation in 12 member states on
1 January,
2002. The remaining EU states (with the exception of the United Kingdom and Denmark) are required by their treaties of accession to adopt the euro after meeting the necessary economic conditions to enter the eurozone.
Denominations
There are seven different denominations, each having a distinctive colour and size. The design for each of them has a common theme of European
architecture in various
artistic periods. The front (or
recto) of the note features windows or gateways while the back (or
verso) has bridges. Care has been taken so that the architectural examples don't represent any actual existing monument, so as not to induce jealousy and controversy in the choice of which monument should be depicted.
Common to all notes are the
European flag, the initials of the
European Central Bank in five versions (BCE, ECB, EZB, ΕΚΤ, EKP), a map of Europe on the back, the name "euro" in both
Latin and
Greek script and the signature of the current
president of the ECB. The 12 stars from the
European Flag are also incorporated into every note.
The euro banknote designs were chosen from 44 proposals in a design competition, launched by The Council of the European Monetary Institute (EMI) on
12 February 1996. The winning entry, created by
Robert Kalina from the
Oesterreichische Nationalbank, was selected on
3 December 1996.
Specification
The paper used for euro banknotes is 100% pure cotton fibre, which improves their durability as well as imparting a distinctive feel.
The following member overseas territories are shown: the
Azores,
French Guiana,
Guadeloupe,
Madeira,
Martinique,
Réunion, and the
Canary Islands.
Cyprus and
Malta are not shown, as they only joined the EU in 2004; also Malta is too small to be shown, with the minimum size for depiction being 400 km².
These designs use the Duisenberg signature, which has since been replaced by the signature of Jean-Claude Trichet, the current president of the ECB.
Special features for people with impaired sight
The design of euro banknotes include several characteristics suggested in co-operation with organisations representing
blind people. These characteristics aid both people who are
visually impaired (people who can see the banknotes, but can't necessarily read the printing on them) and those who are entirely blind.
Euro banknotes increase in size with increasing denominations, which helps both the visually impaired and the blind. The predominant colouring of the notes alternates between “warm” and “cool” hues in adjacent denominations (see the chart above), making it still harder to confuse two similar denominations for those who can see the colour. The printing of the denominations is
intaglio printing, which allows the ink to be felt by sensitive fingers, allowing some people to distinguish the printed denominations by touch alone. Lower denominations (5, 10, 20) have smooth bands along one side of the note containing holograms; higher denominations have smooth, square patches with
holograms. Finally, the €200 and €500 notes have distinctive tactile patterns along the edges of the notes: the €200 note has vertical lines running from the bottom centre to the right-hand corner, and the €500 note has diagonal lines running down the right-hand edge.
It can be useful to fold a note between two fingers and then use the fingers as a length gauge to distinguish one note from another.
Although there have been other currencies pre-dating the euro that were specifically designed in similar ways (different sizes, colours, and ridges) to aid the visually impaired, the introduction of the euro constitutes the first time that authorities have consulted associations representing the blind before, rather than after, the release of the currency.
Security features
The ECB has described some of the more rudimentary security features of the euro note, allowing the general public to authenticate their currency at a glance. However, in the interest of security, the exhaustive list of these features is a closely-guarded secret.
Still, between the official descriptions and independent discoveries made by observant users, it's thought that the euro notes include at least thirty different security features. These include:
Holograms
The €5, €10 and €20 notes carry a
holographic band to the right of the front side. This band is imprinted with the note's denomination; for example, "€5 €5 €5...." in the case of the five-euro note.
In the case of the €50 notes and higher, the band is replaced with a holographic decal.
Variable colour ink
Appears on the lower right corner of back side of the €50 and higher. When observed from different angles, the colour varies between purple and green.
Checksum
Each note has a unique serial number. The serial number contains a
check digit (last digit) between 1 and 9, that fulfills the following criterion: if the initial letter is replaced by its position in the alphabet (that is L is 12, M is 13,..., Z is 26), the
remainder from division of the resulting number by 9 is
8. The remainder from division by 9 can easily be found by repeatedly adding up parts of the number.
For example: gives 2610708476264. The remainder from division by 9 can be found by: 26 + 1 + 0 + 7 + 0 + 8 + 4 + 7 + 6 + 2 + 6 + 4 = 71, 7 + 1 =
8
By replacing the initial letter by a different system, you'll get different required remainders. For instance, when replacing the letter by its
ASCII value, the remainder will be 0, meaning, the resulting number will be divisible by 9 (see
Divisibility rule; in this case, the repeated addition will result in 9).
Another example: Z10708476264: the ASCII code for Z is 90, so the resulting number is 9010708476264. The addition of all digits gives 54; 5+4 = 9 - so the number is divisible by 9, or 9010708476264
modulo 9 is 0.
EURion constellation
Euro banknotes contain a pattern known as the
EURion constellation which can be used to detect their identity as banknotes to prevent copying. Some older photocopiers are programmed to reject images containing this pattern.
Watermarks
Standard watermark
Each denomination is printed on uniquely-
watermarked paper. This may be observed by holding the note up to the light.
Digital watermark
Like the EURion constellation, a
Digimarc digital watermark is embedded in the banknotes' designs. Recent versions of image editors, such as
Adobe Photoshop or
Paint Shop Pro refuse to process banknotes.
Infra-red and ultra-violet watermarks
When seen in the near
infrared, the banknotes will show darker areas in different zones depending on the denomination.
Ultraviolet light will make the EURion constellation show in sharper contrast, and also some
fluorescent threads stand out.
Printing registration
The note value in the upper-left corner is
printed incompletely, as is the denomination in the upper-right corner of the back. When held up to the light, this denomination is visible in its entirety. Genuine notes will exhibit perfect alignment (or "registration") between the front and back. If the note has been printed incorrectly, for example by a counterfeiter, these numbers may appear poorly aligned.
Raised printing
Some areas of the notes have a different
Texture from others. the "BCE ECB EZB" characters are raised to the touch.
Bar code
When held up to the light, metallic bars can be seen to the right of the watermark. The number and width of these bars indicates the value of the note. When scanned, these bars are converted to
Manchester code.
Manchester code>
| Note |
arcode |
Manchester |
|
0110 10 |
100 |
|
0101 10 |
110 |
|
1010 1010 |
0000 |
|
0110 1010 |
1000 |
|
0101 1010 |
1100 |
|
0101 0110 |
1110 |
|
0101 0101 |
1111 |
(looked at from the reverse, a dark bar is 1, a bright bar 0)
Security Thread
A black magnetic thread in the middle of the note is seen only against a light source. It shows the denomination of the note, along with the word "euro".
Magnetic ink
Some areas feature magnetic ink. The rightmost church window on the €20 note is magnetic, as well as the large zero above it.
Micro-print
The texture lines to the bottom, for example those aligned with the ΕΥΡΩ mark on the €10 note, are actually made of the word "EURO" in very small print.
Matted surface
The euro sign and the denomination are printed on a vertical band which is only visible when lighted at an angle of 45°.
Counterfeiting
There has been a rapid growth in the
counterfeiting of euro banknotes and coins since the launch of the currency in 2002.
In 2003, 551,287 fake euro notes and 26,191 bogus euro coins were removed from EU circulation. In 2004, French police seized fake €10 and €20 notes worth a total of around €1.8 million from two laboratories and estimated that 145,000 notes had already entered circulation.
Serial number
Unlike the
euro coins, the euro notes don't have a national side indicating which country produced them. This information is instead encoded within the note's serial number.
The first letter of the serial number uniquely identifies the country that issues the note. The remaining numbers (when added up and the digits of the resulting sum then added together again until a single digit remains) give a checksum also particular to that country. The W, K and J codes have been reserved for the EU member states currently not participating in the euro.
Country letters
Country codes are alphabetised according to the countries' names in the official language of each country, but reversed:
(1) checksum of the 11 digits without the letter
- The positions of Denmark and Greece have been swapped in the list of letters starting the serial numbers, presumably because Y (upsilon) is a letter of the Greek alphabet, while W is not.
- Ireland's first official language is Irish; however, in the above chart it's clear the order was based on the English Ireland rather than the Irish which is Éire. Irish is an official EU language as of 1 January 2007. It is uncertain if this will affect the placement of its code in euro banknotes printed after that time.
- In the case of Finland, which has two official languages that are also official EU languages (Finnish and Swedish), the order was based on the Finnish Suomi instead of the Swedish Finland, presumably because Finnish is the majority language in the country.
- Belgium has three official languages, all of which are official EU languages. Luxembourg also has three official languages, with two being official EU languages. However, in these cases, the countries' positions in the list would be the same no matter which language was used.
The notes of Luxembourg currently use the prefix belonging to the country where they were printed.
Although the Slovenian letter had been reserved since the eurozone enlargement in January 2007, the country initially used previously issued banknotes issued from other member states. The first banknotes bearing the "H" letter, produced in France specifically on behalf of Slovenia, were witnessed no sooner than April 2008.
Cyprus and
Malta won't print euro notes for the time being, and will use previously issued banknotes from other eurozone member states. However, country codes have been reserved for both countries, as appears on the
ECB Euro banknote FAQ site
(External Link
).
It seems from that further country codes are assigned in reverse order from the last assigned code "J" for the
UK, according to the time a country joins the
Eurozone. When two or more countries join at the same time, the same rule is followed as with the initial assignments of country codes, for example the country codes are alphabetised according to the countries' names in the official language of each country, but reversed. "H" was assigned to Slovenia which joined the
Eurozone in 2007 following "J" which was the last letter assigned so far, to the UK. Then when Cyprus and Malta joined in 2008, "G" was assigned to
Cyprus (Κύπρος [Kypros] in Greek, Kıbrıs in Turkish, the island's two official languages both starting with the letter K) and "F" was assigned to Malta.
Also, as the number of members of the
EU grows steadily larger, it seems likely that when the next series is issued (2010 expected) that the prefixes will change to 2-character prefixes as at that stage, there should be 27 members (but only 26 letters in the Latin alphabet, or fewer if letters that could be confused with numbers are excluded).
It has also been suggested that, should the prefixes change to two characters, the code should be the state's
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (for example, EE for Estonia, DE for Germany).
Printing works
Somewhat hidden on the front of the note is a second, smaller sequence where the first letter identifies the actual printer of the note. The printer code need not coincide with the country code, for example notes issued by a particular country may have been printed in another country (for example some Finnish notes have in fact been produced by a UK printer). The A, C and S codes have been reserved for printers currently not printing euro banknotes.
As from
2002, the individual national
central banks (NCBs) are responsible for the production of one or two specific banknote denominations and will thus select the printing works. For example the
National Bank of Belgium is one of the 4 banks responsible for printing €50 notes.
This decentralised pooling scheme means that the NCBs have to exchange the denominations produced in different locations prior to issue.
Design changes
Banknotes have to bear the ECB president's signature. New notes printed after November
2003 show
Jean Claude Trichet's signature, replacing that of the first president,
Wim Duisenberg.
Current issues don't reflect the expansion of the EU to 27 member states (
Cyprus and
Malta are not depicted on current notes). Since the ECB plans to redesign the notes every seven or eight years after each issue, a second series of banknotes is already in preparation. New production and anti-counterfeiting techniques will be employed on the new notes, but the design will be of the same theme and colours as the current series; bridges and arches. They would still be recognisable as a new series however.
Two more abbreviations of the European Central Bank name will have to be included on the banknotes: the
Cyrillic (ЕЦБ) and Polish (EBC).
Only the Cyrillic rendering of the name "euro" (евро) will be added to the new series, since it's ECB policy that the name
euro be used in all countries using Latin script. See the article
Linguistic issues concerning the euro for more information on this discussion.
This new series is expected to be issued in
2010 at the earliest.
€1 and €2 notes
Italy, Greece and Austria have asked several times to introduce lower denominations of euro notes. The ECB has stated that "printing a €1 note is more expensive (and less durable) than minting a €1 coin". On
18 November 2004 the ECB decided definitively that there was insufficient demand across the Eurozone for very low denomination banknotes. On
25 October 2005, however, more than half of the
MEPs supported a motion calling on the European Commission and the European Central Bank to recognise the definite need for the introduction of €1 and €2 banknotes. However it must be noted that the European Central Bank isn't directly answerable to the Parliament or the Commission, and will therefore possibly ignore the motion. It is also possible the ECB may recognise the need, but take no action to fulfil this need.
Design
Owing to the ubiquity of countless historic bridges, arches, and gateways throughout the continent, all the structures represented on the banknotes are entirely fictional syntheses of the relevant architectural styles, merely designed to evoke the landmarks within the
EU.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Euro Banknotes'.
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