The European Union introduces 100 and 200 euro banknotes with an updated design
The new banknotes are better protected against counterfeiting and have an important security feature – a hologram in the upper part of a silvered strip. When turning the banknote, you can see the euro symbols rotating around the denomination number.
As reported by "Russkaya Germaniya", the updated 100 and 200 euro banknotes were presented by Deutsche Bundesbank on May 21. The new banknotes were printed in Rome. The new euros were put into circulation by the European Central Bank (ECB) on Tuesday, May 28.
Old banknotes will also remain in circulation as full legal tender, and their withdrawal will be gradual.
The designers of the new banknotes preserved the color scheme of the previous banknotes but made changes to the graphic design. A distinctive feature of the new banknotes is the portrait of the character from ancient Greek mythology – Europa, applied as a watermark on a holographic vertical strip.
The image of the ancient Greek goddess Europa was taken from a vase in the Paris Louvre. According to the ECB president, this image of a curly-haired girl in flowing robes most accurately matches the descriptions of the goddess created more than two millennia ago.
Another difference is that the numbers 100 or 200 in the lower left corner change color from blue to dark green depending on the viewing angle. At a certain angle, holographic images in the form of the single currency symbol will appear.
Of course, the new design was developed not for decorative purposes, but to protect money from counterfeiting. "These security features will make counterfeiting banknotes more difficult," believes a board member of the German Central Bank.
The banknotes are indeed well protected against counterfeiting: innovative technologies were used in creating the new 100 and 200 euros, including complex relief images applied to the banknotes, allowing them to be distinguished from fakes by touch. The new euros also feature larger and clearer denomination images.
In addition to visible security features, the new banknotes also received special marks that can only be recognized by a machine. According to the ECB, the number of such special marks on 100 and 200 euro banknotes was also increased to speed up the process of machine recognition and authenticity verification.
Furthermore, the new 100 and 200 euro banknotes differ from existing ones in size – by approximately 5 millimeters. The new 100 and 200 euros are different in length – the longer the banknote, the higher its denomination (153 millimeters for 200 euros and 147 millimeters for 100 euros).
The European Central Bank emphasized that the new banknotes will have "a longer life because they will be less susceptible to wear."
It should be noted that the 100 and 200 euro banknotes complete the update of the "Europa" series banknotes. This process of introducing updated banknotes in Europe was launched in May 2013 and has been implemented over the past several years. The series of updated banknotes got its name "Europa" from the special security watermark in the form of the eponymous heroine of an ancient Greek myth. The ECB emphasized that the goddess Europa was chosen as a symbol of the eurozone banknotes because she "has an obvious connection" with the history of the European continent and, as the ECB president recalled, Europe itself was named in her honor.
Recall that earlier – in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 – updated banknotes of this series in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 euros were introduced into circulation. And the ECB decided to completely abandon 500 euro banknotes.
Cash remains popular in Europe. For example, in France, 68% of transactions are carried out using cash. While cards help keep funds relatively safe, it is cash that allows their holders to truly freely manage their funds at any convenient time.