Print something new in it for each member; issue half of them in odd years and half in even. Hold contests.
The whole "some person's face" thing doesn't work because most people won't be familiar with them. Heck, you'd be lucky if the average person is familiar with their names! The birds & buildings suffer from the same issue: never seen them, can't identify them, don't care about them. And because it references real-world things there's a very genuine risk of people being upset over being underrepresented, or the person or institution being depicted getting disgraced.
What's left is the "vague depictions of people doing random things" theming, but that's neither European nor meaningful nor distinctive. You forget about it the second you stop looking at it.
The previous two series - depicting bridge types and building styles - neatly bypassed this by being something everyone could relate to, while at the same time not referencing anything specific-enough that anyone could be upset about it. Especially the first series nailed this down perfectly.
Given the mediocre design proposals we're now left with, I think Design J is the obvious best choice. It is not actively ugly, and the various bills are at least distinct enough that they are easy to tell apart. Design H isn't too bad, but the building side is just "generic glass blob in a distance" rather than anything one would remember and recognize.
There’s millennia of history of having coins and paper money faces that most people will not be familiar with.
> The previous two series - depicting bridge types and building styles - neatly bypassed this by being something everyone could relate to,
I don’t see much difference there. Just as many people can’t see more than “man with beard” or “bird with long legs”, I bet many people can’t seen more than “old bridge” or “modern bridge” for the current designs (what fraction of the population can discriminate the €5 ‘classical’ from the €10 ‘romanesque’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes)?)
As the EU is slowly growing beyond just economical ties I assume it tries to form a pan-european identity, hence why some famous European people. And Skłodowska to entice the Poles to drop their currency and finally join the Eurozone.
I still don't know who is it that they placed on the 5€ banknote
Explain yourself. Who the hell could feel upset upon seeing Marie Curie, Beethoven, da Vinci or Maria Callas? They are all very recognizable, well known European figures with astounding achievements and highly respected by any true European worth its name.
Are you suggesting we should erase them because of someone's feeling?
You can of course say people should just grow up and not be affected by petty sentimental arguments like this. But keep in mind, the EU is as much an economical and political project as it is a cultural project. You have to win people's hearts. And you do so by not making them feel neglected.
Europe doesn't have a dearth of stunning architecture. Have they all been discarded in favor of ugly straightline modernist sloptitecture because they might be construed as offensive for some reason?
Because they are the european institutions, eg the EU parliament building, EU comission, etc.
They are mostly office buildings.
And I think that's why it was considered.
I know many people will see and think of the EU as a positive thing, just like how the colonists of the past rationalized their selfish harm and destruction through things like claiming to bring civilization to the savages; but under all the fluff, all the slick marketing and propaganda lies and manipulation, the indigenous European cultures and people are being destroyed right before our very eyes. Many people cheer it on while decrying how those horrible people of the past could have done the very same thing they support through the EU, only towards their very own people.
Considering the alien and hostile nature of the EU towards actual Europeans and European culture, it does seem most appropriate to have the alien, dystopian, monolithic, uninspired, cold buildings on the currency looking like alien spaceships, as a true representation of what the EU is; an alien bait and switch occupation that is devastating the indigenous people and cultures of Europe just like the ruling class did all over the rest of the planet in previous centuries.
Now the European peoples are getting the racist, narcissistic, supremacist colonization experience…even if in a kind of inverse form…that will and is destroying and devastating the indigenous people and cultures.
What’s amazing is how people cannot see that they are part of the very kind of thing they often decry others having done elsewhere in the past; indigenous European languages and dialects are dying out because they’re being killed off by EU policies by the dozens, cultural practices that are centuries and millennia old are being killed and dying out with them. Europeans don’t even see the thing that is obvious to a self-aware transatlantic person; Europe is being turned into an America. Look at America what it is now … that’s your future, kid. Do you really want to do that, be a devastated, hollow husk of what you once were, what you could have been???
Just look around you; Europe is gearing up to be a war machine, the civilian industrial base is being destroyed, the economies are being financialized, deficits are spreading, unique cultures are being destroyed and turned into corporate Disney versions of themselves! Sounds familiar!
There is criticism and there are lies based on ideologicalized hate.
Excellent debate. Good arguments made.
You lack the imagination for what the EU could have been, not an institution that imposes itself on the people while screaming “democracy” and “equality” as the abuses continue unabated and the indigenous people and the millennia and century old cultures of Europe are being eradicated and snuffed out. It is being done in far more sophisticated and subtle ways, but like they were in the Americas, in Russia, in China, in Asia in general, etc. it was also done to the Americans who were a prosperous and educated and vibrant people before the 20th century, and now it is what everyone knows it as…… the future face of Europe if this continue.
but find some actually nice buildings to put on the rest
Are you against the idea of European cooperation in general? Or against the implementation?
If there is to be European cooperation that goes beyond heads of states talking to each other, you're going to need some kind of space where they can do that. Using that building as a symbol seems like an obvious choice albeit not a very creative one. Really struggle to see how that choice can be "extremely insulting".
A movie showing an external shot of the White House establishes that we're going to be looking at the US President next. A movie showing an external shot of the European Parliament establishes... office drones working in the Business Factory?
I don't think the ECB will ever be recognizable (or at least won't become recognized via exposure), since it's just a glass tower like thousands of others.
I'm against ugly soulless buildings. Those buildings can't be a symbol for anything, because they, like all modern [1] buildings, were deliberately designed to remove all identity. They are completely generic, no different from modern buildings in Beijing, New York, or Dubai. The only thing they represent is a capitulation, or refusal, of making things beautiful.
I'd vastly prefer some national landmark of the nation that committed war crimes against us in WWI & II, than that.
[1] Or is it "modernist"? Whatever the "style" of basic geometric shapes in steel and glass is called.
It seems pretty neutral, if un-exciting, to see EU institutions displayed on Euro banknotes. It also avoids the obvious pitfall of national landmarks.
Europe is a continent with countries that have literally centuries of enimity and nationalism between them. You cannot put a French building on a banknote.
Bland and inoffensive is what keeps the Union together. Its why Strasbourg exists. Its why there are Dutch translators despite the fact every Dutch member of parliament speeches in English.
Or if you like to have something modern, Paimio Sanatorium or Turning Torso.
I remember a major French pro-european politician (Modem party) attempting to define Europe (in the context of integrating Turkey), as "the friends of democracy". When you can't (or rather refuse to) define your identity, the only thing left to represent it is birds, office buildings and bridges. Notre Damme de Paris or the Pantheon in Rome are just old embarrassing historical artefacts of an evil civilisation.
The blandness comes from the fact that the EU has to tiptoe around the nationalists which will be upset that a country they don't like gets a banknote, and possibly even worse - they didn't get one.
Reading back both your and my post I guess it's the radicals of either stance who the EU desperately needs to cater to, resulting in generic designs. It's erasing itself like any institution with a 1-member veto.[1]
Having multiple languages is more of that "differences are fine". The use of Directives rather than Regulations for many purposes allows a country's government to incorporate local differences in how we do things. A Regulation applies everywhere, but the Directive just tells your government to make local law to meet some goal. What we want to achieve is the same in Paris and San Gimignano but how we do it will vary by local culture.
The EU isn't a federation, and having a single currency doesn't make the eurozone any more so.
The buildings aren't as bad, being european insitution headquarters. However, as they aren't necessarily widely recognizable, they come out a bit self serving.
If such people exist, fuck em.
Why not any of the below ?
Austria: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Belgium: Georges Lemaître Bulgaria: Saint Cyril Croatia: Nikola Tesla Cyprus: Zeno of Citium Czechia: Franz Kafka Denmark: Hans Christian Andersen Estonia: Jaan Kross Finland: Jean Sibelius France: Napoleon Bonaparte Greece: Aristotle Hungary: Franz Liszt Ireland: James Joyce Latvia: Mark Rothko Lithuania: Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis Luxembourg: Robert Schuman Malta: Jean de Valette Netherlands: Rembrandt van Rijn Portugal: Vasco da Gama Romania: Nadia Comăneci Slovakia: Andy Warhol Slovenia: Slavoj Žižek Spain: Pablo Picasso Sweden: Alfred Nobel
Why was Callas chosen over Joyce ? why was Beethovan chosen over Mozart ?
> Latvia: Mark Rothko
Marcus Rotkowitz was Jewish, born in Dvinsk, Russian Empire (today Daugavpils in Latvia) and emigrated when he was 10 (and Latvia wasn't a country yet.) At home, he spoke Yiddish and Russian, and probably didn't know a word in Latvian (at the time, Dvinsk population was half Jewish, with the rest divided between Russians, Poles, and Latvians).
Your idea that he's the guy who should represent Latvia on a European banknote would probably quickly get you burned at the stake at Doms Square in Riga.
Officially the EU prefers Karajan's arrangement, if you're a huge classical music fan you'll recognise this immediately, but for most people it's just obviously the Ninth.
Nikola Tesla wasn't Croatian. He was Serbian.
I like what they did with coins the best, where one face is common, showing a map of Europe, and the other is free for the issuing country to choose from. I like the message it delivers, different cultures, united. And as people travel, they will bring coins from their countries, the resulting effect is that if you go to a Eurozone country, you are likely to see coins in circulation from all over Europe, which is a concrete example of free trade happening.
I wish they did the same for banknotes: one side generic, one side country-specific, but it may be impractical.
I happen to live in a city on England's south coast. So Scotland is quite far away and understandably Scottish banknotes, though legally equivalent to the notes you'd get here in most senses, are rarely seen. I know what they're supposed to look like and that they're 1:1 equivalent, but of course the guy who runs the Chinese takeaway near me wouldn't have seen one before. So what happens when a Glaswegian down for the weekend wants to order some food and tries to pay with the Scottish £10 in his wallet? The owner doesn't accept it. "No, no, no!". The Glaswegian insists it's legal tender [which is irrelevant, but if you don't know why it's irrelevant feel free to go look it up, it's not helpful for me to tell him this even if he believes me and I see no reason I need to explain to you either] and of course all the time they're arguing about money I am not getting my food.
So I took the man's Scottish £10 and handed the restaurant owner an English £10 because I don't care and now I can order food. Weird money is bad.
If you live in a border town you'd see notes from both sides. If you work in a tourist-facing industry you might recognise most of the variants because tourists tend to have their country's notes. But if you're some small town shopkeeper in Poland why would you know that this is real €200 note from Luxemboug? It's probably a fake, isn't it? So you make friction for these notes higher (some shopkeepers won't accept them) and even if legally they're fine you can't fix that friction in practice so people hate this outcome.
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/what-is-legal-ten...
It's a matter of bureocrats remembering that there are more countries in the eurozone than banknotes, and even if that wasn't the case, their denominations can be read as hierarchy.
An excellent example of possible problems! She is Maria Skłodowska-Curie and she herself preferred this variant
Their idea is that they want people all over the EU to think of da Vinci as “us”. Over time, it’ll become more normal to consider luminaries from other European countries as part of the shared heritage.
That said there will be countries that may ask why their guy can’t make it to the note. Why not Herge, the Belgians might ask? The question is left as an exercise to the reader.
Why do you believe that? That sounds overly nationalistic to me. In the Schengen zone you can live and work in any country. Europe even accepts a lot of undocumented people from outside Europe, willingly. The whole European project seems to be about breaking down national borders in a pro-human way. Why take humans out of it?
The European project has worked all these years because it stands on the idea that we are all europeans with shared values, but also different countries with our own cultures. We are all the same yet different. The Euro banknotes (even though the Euro and the EU aren't the same thing) should represent that, not look like some specific nation's currency, which is what faces (any face no matter the personality) evokes.
PS: Perhaps paradoxically, the faces on Euro coins are a good idea (I like having my wallet populated with coins from different countries), for the same reason they're a bad idea on notes.
Look nobody in the Netherlands believes we share values with other countries the EU is just a good deal. The moment that stops and its auf Wiedersehen.
Everyone can think of similarly deserving people. They should do it like the coins and just have an abundance of motifs from every country. Since they’re too scared to put english text on them, put a QR code link to some short text in every language. I cringe at the idea of QR codes in general, but what are you going to do.
The buildings are all the same steel and glass bullshit and represent nothing if not the widely despised bureaucratic aspects of the EU. The birds at least look nice, but they’re boring and hyper-harmless.
I do have an issue with anything that might be interpreted as the proposals of some countries having had more weight that others.
There's a reason why the current Euro banknotes represent bridges that do not exist in the real world.
Erm... by this logic either: "Currie is French" or "Callas is American"
Also: you meant "Skłodowska"? :P
You see the issues here? ;)
You mean Europeans? Because I highly doubt more ppl know about them than about Jesus. And I'd claim the most well known European is probably Hitler, through infamy.
>>You mean Europeans?
>Jesus isn’t European
That's exactly the point?
How dare you to use a face! How dare you to use a building! How dare they use something some country specific! And even worst, generic! Oh no, a building of an institution!
No matter what is in, people looking to twist it in offense will find a reason.
Just take a look at Maldive's currency and tell me that this proposal isn't terribly boring.
For me, the 20 rufiyaa bill is the most interesting design.
I found faces more of uglier, but that is not the same as offensive. I dont feel insulted over the faces, they are just more boring to look at.
I think there is massive difference between "I prefer this other picture" or "this is ugly" and the "it is insulting and offensive" people do here.
I also feel like the notes that had buildings (like we have now) are just.. better. The initial run of 2002-2013 remains the best aesthetically, imo.
For reference, the two previous runs at the top of the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes
Since you mentioned English isn't your first language, this use of the "to stick" verb where it's about adhering to something (metaphorically in your case) has a different past participle, "stuck". You wrote "sticked" which makes sense but isn't used for this meaning today. Nobody will misunderstand but it will sound wrong to them, we'd say e.g. "Perhaps if we'd stuck with Zig the game would be finished by now" or "Somebody stuck their chewing gum to the table".
Most of these new designs are monochrome excepting that the European flag is itself blue because that's what colour the flag is. A few of them are more colourful, and I see what you mean about that adding to clutter. For their purpose they're successful because the big reason to use colour is that people with very poor sight (some of whom are legally blind but do retain some ability to determine colour) can tell a red note from a blue one, the small accents in a different colour won't affect that. If your sight is good enough to figure out it's a European flag, you don't need this cue, you can read the large numerals saying "100" nearby to determine it's a €100 note.
The others, for the most part, aren't necessarily bad, but they are a bit boring and derivative.
People will still find ways to get upset about none or too few of the birds being present in their country, or "their bird" being depicted on the "cheap" notes.
There are very few birds which are commonly seen throughout all of the EU, from cold and wet Finland to hot and dry Spain. Virtually all birds have a limited geographical living area, which means you are automatically unintentionally playing favorites with countries.
Maybe too early for the turkeys right now...
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica): Migrates and breeds across all EU territories from Southern to Northern Europe.
White Stork (Ciconia ciconia): Uses major European flyways crossing through virtually all EU nations during spring and autumn migration.
European Robin (Erithacus rubecula): Widespread resident and migrant present in every EU country.
Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix): A highly migratory ground bird breeding regularly in all EU member states.
Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla): A remarkably adaptable migratory songbird found traversing or breeding in every EU country.
Additional Widespread European Migrants:
Common Swift (Apus apus): Spends summers breeding in all EU nations before migrating to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus): A widespread brood parasite present across every EU country during the spring breeding season. <~ probably not the image one would want on a 5 Euro note.
Eurasian Skylark (Alauda arvensis): Moves dynamically across all EU borders, adapting via partial migration.
Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos): A migratory and resident songbird found throughout the entire European Union. <~ due to homonym in English for a medical condition. probably not the right image either.
Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita): A highly migratory leaf warbler that breeds or passes through every EU state.
Many species of birds are HIGHLY migratory, spend some part of every year chasing weather that supports and provides food for them.
Some of these make round trips from the sub-Arctic to sub-Saharan climates every year. So a list of birds that is acceptable and not 'favoring' any one nation is an easy move. Choosing birds that actually are found in all 27 member nations is a great idea.
Even Malta and Cyprus see all ten of these species as they provide important migration stopovers in the Mediterranean during migration and a few of these species, the Quail even manages to have historically had breeding populations in both, as well as using the islands as key migratory stopovers.
Using birds on an Euro note can help draw public awareness to the ongoing need for cooperation among nations in the protections of a shared symbol of natural freedom, which migratory birds embody.
Next crows will be holding you at gun point for the crow looking notes.
Does the same logic extend all elevated positions? A person in a national portrait gallery, a person with a statue, a person with an olympic medal or a nobel prize, a person with a fancy title like president or queen?
Or is there something specific about bank notes that makes them more problematic?
I can't exactly get upset over "the concept of Renaissance architecture". I can get upset over, say, Beethoven fighting his sister-in-law to get the custody of her son.
We can and do take away honours from living people, you might remember that Paula Vennells had an OBE, but that was removed because while she hasn't and likely won't ever be actually prosecuted for it, it's obviously her fault that so many UK subpostmasters were convicted of crimes they didn't commit and in some cases even committed suicide.
Likewise the present King of England's brother would in the ordinary course of things be a pretty important guy with the title Prince and so on. But he's not, he's just Andrew because even though again he's unlikely to face prosecution it does seem like he fucked an underage girl trafficked by Epstein so the King took away his titles.
But for example Oscar Pistorius has several medals for running - not just in paralympic events but straight up against people with both legs and no running blades. The medals weren't retracted when he murdered somebody or even when he was sent to prison for the murders. Oscar still ran really fast and the medals stand. But hopefully we are clear that "Was very fast" and "Is a terrible person" are compatible ideas.
> a person with a fancy title like president
"President" is not a fancy title. It is, in fact, a title specifically chosen to be boring and unglamorous.
The color is actually the main reason I dislike that design the least!
All the monochrome blobs do have a more traditional bank note feeling, but the complete lack of contrast makes them unmemorable and hard to identify. You can't trivially tell them apart at a quick glance, you have to either actively read the number or identify it by color. But the numbers aren't big enough for reading, and there are a lot of colorblind people.
Try opening them up in a photo editing tool. Blur them and desaturate them a bunch. Can you still tell them apart?
B) The most boring of the options. The tiny text with the bird facts should not be there.
C) Corporate hellscape.
D) wtf are those hands doing here
E) Again fronts look better than backs; fronts are very traditional bank-note to me.
F) Most interesting option. Certainly feels different than any other bank note I recall.
G) Ugh random vector shapes and gradients. Ugly in same ways as C)
H) Very inoffensive, very boring. Competing with B) in the most boring category.
I) Bit too much going on. The river map thing on the back side should be distinct in each note
J) The visual "sketchy" style just doesn't feel right here.
Ultimately F is visually my favourite although like many others I do dislike the "famous people" theme. Design I could be very nice with some tweaks
Of course then, on the other hand, the boring options are in this sense the most honest ones.
Anything with a face, I'm tired of that trope of banknote design.
I guess we are used to a horizontal layout, some try to be bold with completely vertical but it won't be easy to identify in my wallet.
So I would grant D) that fine balance argument.
The birds on J is incredibly beautiful, but that's somewhat offset by the building on the reverse.
I helped Claude build a simple web app (static, local, oss) to make you choose among pairs, to progressively determine your personal preference.
It outputs your top 3, you can share the summary like this:
Recto Verso Euro
My top euro banknote designs:
Design H
Design D
Design B
→ https://pil0u.github.io/recto-verso-euro/#r=HDBJIGECFA&c=68
I have zero reason to complain honestly. It's never impacted me negatively at all... but aestetically it feels weird when mixed together with other bills.
If you're sorting money, you'll already know which ones are 10$ because they're that colour of purple... but the number won't be facing the right way. If you're making an ATM UI that lets people pick what mix of bills to withdrawl, RBC chose to show pictures of the bills for some reason, featuring the old horizontal 10$ bill (which it doesn't dispense) because clearly the actual 10$ bill wouldn't fit in the UI. [1] (I didn't expect this to be illustrated by a random youtube video, but it turns out the internet has everything.)
Is that a problem? No. Is it juuust weird enough that family from overseas visting me will mention how weird it is every single time they use an ATM? Yes.
If the euro switched to vertical all at once maybe that wouldn't be as weird, but the old horizontal bills are going to be circulating for a long time.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_ten-dollar_note
[1] https://youtu.be/sRxo_L9ODwo?si=pihBzi4XTaLoXngF&t=47 (Warning, you have better things to do with your time than watch the slowest person ever withdraw two 10$ bills)
Very cool, it made me realize I really like landscape designs which are generic.
These are a current necessities, but nothing to sanctuarize for the future. The only thing that should remain stable in Europe are ideas, and the Swiss got it better on their notes
Although the ECB does not today "withdraw" notes in the sense that they cease to be valid for most purposes, it does deliberately destroy old notes and issue new ones with different images to replace them, so the original series must be getting pretty rare by now - not rare enough to be worth serious collectors paying money for it, but your ten year old may never have seen an actual old Euro €500 note even though in principle those still are valid money in the Eurozone.
Big part of the reason for this appears to be security. Many years ago a high-ranking official from Finnish central bank told in an interview that bank notes need to be redesigned approximately once per decade. Reason is that it takes about that long for the materials and printing technology to get commoditised enough for criminal enterprises to be able to start manufacturing "high-grade" forgeries at any real scale.
Every generation of bank notes employs a whole bunch of newly developed technologies and tricks that make the notes themselves distinctive, as well as incredibly difficult[ß] to forge.
ß: Some of it is down to tightly locked down and guarded speciality supply chains. Some is due to advances in microprinting and ilk. If you had unlimited resources, you could arrange to have the necessary equipment, supplies, staff and materials to print your own forged money. It'd just be slow, low-yield and very expensive.
I'd like the birds front with the other option for the back (public squares or something?)
The selection of people is also quite poor but that's because people are a poor choice: Most notable historical people are very linked to specific countries, often against other countries so picking neutral ones is hard. They also clearly decided to have an equal number of men and women, which makes it even harder. Obviously there aren't enough different banknotes to represent every country, either.
Faces are a terrible idea for a common currency shared by 21 countries.
You have to pick one writer, good that the English left for good so Shakespeare's out, but how do the French feel about Cervantes vs. Victor Hugo?
The Poles complaining that they didn't get enough recognition because Marie Curie's maiden name isn't given enough prominence should tell you all there is to know about this being a good idea.
I don't think anybody would mind since there's already Marie Curie, which is an obvious choice because she's both Polish and French. I don't know how the Polish take it but the French have no particular feelings about her being Polish as well.
But why are a Greek-American, and an - unknown to the majority of Europeans - Austrian in there?
How many counties more populous than Austria are unrepresented? Do all EU countries count, or just EZ? (Poland is not EZ, is represented, still complained)
It's an impossible list. Europeans don't necessarily have shared heroes, and if they did, some of these wouldn't be top 6.
As for the smaller countries- well let's face it do you think anyone in Europe gives a shit about Dutch or Estonian history and culture? Its France and Germany all the way down I'm afraid. At least we still have the veto.
And no one gives a shit about the (18 million) Dutch, but we picked Bertha von Suttner.
I think it's a bit strange to feature people on these, plus it would be difficult to agree on who to feature between the 21 € states. The birds look cool! But it would have been nice to modernize the current architecture-based design rather than feature random EU office buildings.
The US style? I much prefer the Japanese style instead (where €5 would be a coin instead of a note). When our largest coin is too small to buy a drink at a vending machine we've got a problem. ATMs don't turn over €5 notes anyway, so their existence is painfully awkward.
I miss seeing machines that would bend a 12oz can of soda for 25¢. Those were the days.
I sometimes go to coin-op car washes, it sucks having to punch a fist full of quarters into the machine for a quick wash.
A bending machine?
The main reason I don't use more cash is that it is so inconvenient. I don't want any coins back as change, and always telling cashiers to keep the change when the smallest bill is €5 is just too much for me.
Which is why it'd be better if they weren't all nearly zero value in today's money. Coins of tiny value really suck, I agree. What am I going to do with nickels and dimes, really? So useless.
I also agree bills made from that plastic material seem to hold up better and scan better by machines than the "paper" used in USD, so that's less of a concern.
Although on second thought if there were larger coins in circulation then vending machines would be more lucrative targets and the increased vandalism and theft would lead to even fewer vending machines being around.
What do you mean? Clearly they did agree, which is why we have those design proposals. Those aren’t random people chosen by the designers, they were in the brief.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2025/html/ecb.pr2501...
Cash is freedom.
I wonder how much of cash transactions are actually legitimate. It’s usually drugs, illicit services or untaxed income. While I don’t like tax just as much as next guy, the blatant dodging of is what me. Sure there are few legit privacy freaks and some genuinely unbanked. But blending those into single pot makes it much worse as they are already associated with fringes of society.
Instating a monarchy with cash as regent? How would that work in daily life?
;)
The cookie notification is of course a bit silly, but a "Thanks to the EU you'll never lose another bottle cap" or a "This standardized USB-C charger is brought to you by the EU" would do wonders for its PR.
A more realistic idea may be they could pledge the funds for moving the hand dryer in the men's toilet at the Crown and Treaty pub, which, as you probably have heard, is a in a terribly inconvenient location.
Clearly the best choice would've been to extend this and put British buildings or British historical people on the next generation of Euro notes. It would favor no EU country, so clearly it is the most neutral option. /s
Ireland was a signatory to the Maastricht Treaty, but once again we are reminded of the need to equally consider smaller nations when discussing EUwide matters ;-)
And I don't think Brexit had any benefits. They already don't use the Euro so they can do weird neoliberal wonk stuff to their heart's contents, and they have nukes so we'll be feeding them one way or another so why worry? (That's what we've taught the world by letting NK get them BTW.)
Was that an explicit part of the brief artists were given?
I feel like the selection of motifs is more interesting and where more of the creative process in defining a representation of Europe lies than just how to draw and layout those motifs.
May I propose 6 shades of off-white adorned with geometric shapes. €5 gets dots, €10 lines, €20 triangles and so on. €100 may have pentagrams instead of pentagons to keep Twitter on its toes.
And that’s only the finalist 10; I’d genuinely love to see the whole submission set.
It's also unfortunate that the nice peaceful bird motif was paired with the ugly modern buildings on the other side.
I don't want to open old wounds but Mozart's nationality is debated and warrants its own long Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozart%27s_nationality
César Franck was Dutch, BTW.
I think you just made J.S. Bach roll over in his grave.
And don't forget: Brahms, Handel, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, Wagner.
The competition is not so one-sided.
So al will be watered down to abstract art or animals in the end, so that the suggestion with the least amount of friction gets accepted.
Like all decision in democracy, it is not about finding the best solution, it's about the solution with the least nr of votes against it. That is why democracy never works in the long term, because it is a long, drawn out, trip to the bottom.
Working democracies are the countries with most livable places on Earth..this includes many countries in Europe.
The highest incomes on the planet, are in monarchies like Liechtenstein and Monaco. Singapore, which cannot be called a democracy, is one of the safest countries on the planet.
Another interesting way to look at it is at the debt. The debt of most (all?) democracies is sky rocketing. That means the "livability" is an illusion paid for by borrowed money.
Safety is definitely not the only metric on Life quality. There is a reason why Singapore is called Singaboor and South Korea, Japan and Taiwan have a way more cultural impact.
Putting 6 people of 27 member states is just asking for trouble and lacks representation.
(I still prefer the current approach of using non-existing bridgets as a motif.)
On the other side: most classic composers are from times when there was no Germany. E.g. J. S. Bach is from Sachsen-Eisenach :-)
Europe used to be much more of a mess than today's neatly drawn nation states, retroactively assigning origin is a silly endeavour.
(Edited "Germany" to German - "Germany" was an interesting typo and not entirely wrong: He said "One people, one empire, one leader!")
I want some birds too!
Also I like birds. H looks nice.
I don't like the idea of using faces in the banknotes - when will North Macedonia get its turn and with whom? When will Ireland get its turn? Bulgaria?
Birds are neutral and nice.
Also for the back, much rather I'd have the EU map instead of clunky EU institutions, else people will just see that as more evidence of further EU intrusion.
I found that much nicer than constantly clicking to show the reverse sides, but to each their own!
The current ones are much better looking than any of those.
Honestly, I enjoy plenty of benefits from the EU, but this non-representative style of decision-making makes me understand the EU-haters.
Good opportunity to learn!
When you propose someone, the burden of proof is on you to say why that specific option should be chosen, instead of anything else possible.
The birds idea is good, I like:
B - nice realistic
D/I/J - don't like vertical design (though I like colorful birds in J)
H - the most beautiful work of art, it would be my choice
Btw. why not use more designs at same time? I like Hong Kong approach to currency design (multiple commercial banks issue the banknotes under government regulation, three authorized banks—HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and Bank of China—design and print their own notes for daily use, while the government issues coins and the $10 note).
And very controversial idea, but this would be more suitable for national currency and not for eurozone - use banknotes as ad space companies can purchase, but it would have to be very very very costly space for country's budget to benefit from this. Though I like the idea of paying Pepsi with Coca Cola banknote.
That's the only thing I'll miss if Romania ever switches to Euro. Cash you can launder. Literally.
The proposal J with the birds has some charm, but doesn’t work as a whole.
I think the buildings are ugly, and D does its best to obscure them. So that's my winner.
F has very strong "Soviet children's book" vibes.
5 Euro - La Callas
10 Euro - Beethoven
20 Euro - Marie Curie
50 Euro - Cervantes
100 Euro - Da Vinci
200 Euro - ???
I'm sure I know who the 200 Euro person is but I can't name her.
I'm sad I can't recognise any of the birds with any certainty at all. Fortunately their names are listed in Design B. In fact, so are some of their characteristics like size, weight, wingspan etc, so maybe you can use the banknotes to play some kind of bird card game of sorts.
You can see all side-by-side here: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/ht...
My takes:
Designs A and B and I are not terrible, but I'm not impressed.
Design C - the backside looks like the worst soulless corporate landing page graphics (Corporate Memphis style?).
Design D and E, H are okayish. Possibly I'd prefer something along these lines.
Design F has very strange coloring, the watercolor and sketch effect looks nice on screen, but I think more filled and more monochrome notes are more conventional and accepted, also some are bicolor. Not bad, but I'd not like it in everyday use probably.
Design G is somehow not good looking, I cannot phrase it. Both the font, and also the backsides scenes are meh, even the modernist buildings are better on some other series.
Design J : the creepy abstract cartoon people on the backside ruin it. Also somehow not aesthetically pleasing, but not catastrophic.
Every redesign introduces new (secret) watermarks, patterns that are hard to copy, so it's also a "tech" update. Eventually more and more of the details become public. By now the current banknotes are too well known and I guess the counterfeits are getting too close.
But if I wanted to create counterfeit euro bank notes I could just go with the old ones, no?
Anyway, I think creating new designs just for fun is a good enough reason for me to create new notes.
Maybe it is also just fun...
PS you can even vote for them! https://surveys.ecb.europa.eu/10b/neweuro/
An average lifetime of a banknote is 1-2 years for smaller amounts, 2-4 years for bigger ones. It is estimated that 15-25% of all banknotes are replaced every year. From about 30 billion individual banknotes in circulation that makes 4.5B to 7.5B each year.
So why not introduce new designs (and new protections?)
I kept wondering what all the people and birds were, there's a table on this Motifs page: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2025/html/ecb.pr2501...
So my question is why bother with a redesign when you can't even use the notes in the first place?
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Swiss_franc#N...
But the Canadian ones are physically impressive, they don't really crumble, and seem immune to both liquid and tearing.
Never underestimate the pettiness of man.
Also, if you like animals, why not use different kinds for easier differentiation rather than stick to birds users will not even know names for?
But I'm suggesting varying the desin of both the absolutes (e.g., I'd prefer all of them to be smaller) and the variability (e.g, what about making the most used first 3 notes significantly different length for the easiest differentiation: 1/3, 2/3, 3/3) instead of just playing with some pics.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/ht...
The weirdest thing is that all the notes say "The President". Wtf is that?
From the brief:
> “Rivers and birds” highlights the resilience and diversity of Europe’s natural ecosystems by showcasing different stages of rivers and various bird species, emphasising the importance of nature and environmental protection. The European institutions featured on the banknotes remind us of the fundamental values of the European project, which also embraces environmental protection.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2025/html/ecb.pr2501...
Specially the vertical banknotes, what is up with that?
They look awesome. Design I is amazing
And what are the options they give? I guess historical people with weird abstract community settings or birds with office buildings. Is that all the EU represents?
Whatever they go for I hope they do not open the can of worms that is historical people, or any people for that matter. It will start all kinds of tiresome discussions and people will draw on them making it difficult use defaced bills.
If you really want historical people as a gesture of appreciation or celebration of their achievements then make that a limited edition.
B) Not a fan. Individual elements are well done but it doesn't feel cohesive to me.
C) Fine/unobjectionable to me.
D) I like these a lot. It feels like they really made the most of the choice of buildings by covering them up with geometric patterns and/or showing the insides.
E) I really hate the backs of these. The back designs of all the others show how the spirit of each historical figure shows up in modern life. This utterly fails to do that for Da Vinci and Curie.
F) These just don't look like banknotes to me, and I don't think the colors look good.
G) Please no.
H) Fronts look good!
I) I'm not sure I like the technology/prey animals on the front.
J) These don't feel like banknotes to me, but I think I might wind up liking them after getting used to them.
Also having people on a note is dumb when the note has to be designed for a continent. Europe is not US it’s a union, but still a collection of sovereign countries with national pride and centuries of history.
Having the EU bureaucrat offices on the notes are cherry on top like could they be more narcissistic?
One could think that they would steal some ideas from Swiss currency note. They could have put things that were invented or discovered in Europe that changed the course of humans forever and something to be proud of being European, instead they went with some birds
If you want to eliminate corruption, change the color [design] of your banknotes.
"You give us one old one, we give you one new one. Hey! Where'd you get £€$50,000 on your income?
But, no-one will do that.
A small reminder of what Europe can do make people's lives easier or better.
Dad, can I have a Gorgonzola 20?
Best I can do is a Casu Marzu 5.
From the proposal I like birds way more - no issue with national associations and "birds cross borders beyond nations".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven
If you don’t recognise someone else, they are named in the brief.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2025/html/ecb.pr2501...
The angry one is Ludwig van Beethoven.
I guess of the designs with people I only like designs E and F. There the expressions don't look too odd. Takes some getting used too though.
- Birds combined with concrete block builds
- dead old people (and grumpy looking in the case of beethoven) combined with concrete blocks
- busy and abstract designs that end up being meaningless
Bland, boring & repetitive designs - what else can one expect from a technocracy.
Where is inspiration and future when europe continues to look back to the glories past?
The first two generations of Euro bills, for example. Not bland, not especially boring, not repetitive.
I didn't even know who the person on the 200€ bill is until today and I have a suspicion she was chosen by some woke EU bureaucrat. I'm sure Europe had better persons in its history.
If Maria Callas is suitable for currency, why not put Daft Punk on it?
Considering she was a pretty big deal, it’s telling that your reaction to learning about someone important you had no knowledge of is to use bland unsubstantiated accusations to insult the person who made the pick instead of “interesting, I should’ve known, I wonder why I haven’t learned about her in school (or have since forgotten), let me deepen my understanding of who this person was and her relevance”.
Well, I guess every website must fall some day.
¹ Which is not only rage bait but also very dumb for a plethora of reasons, the least of which that he wasn’t European.
² And as a reminder, their complaint was calling someone a “woke bureaucrat” because the comment’s author was ignorant of a historical figure. I do wonder if they would have said the same if it had been a man.
Daft Punk honestly sounds cool, but we probably shouldn't be putting any living personalities on there. Feels kinda weird.
Weird and ill-advised. Living people who appear on bank notes tend to be monarchs and dictators. Imagine having someone on the euro notes that suddenly becomes overtly anti-EU. Not a good call to promote someone who’s against you.
Remember when Star Trek mentioned Musk? That did not age well.
https://www.cbr.com/star-trek-discovery-elon-musk-joke-star-...
The least historical governmental buildings in Europe seems like an awful choice by contrast: They're tied to a physical location in western Europe that most of us have little to no connection to. They're boring (which is not a criticism of the buildings, they're functional which is their purpose, but I'd rather not see them on coinage).
For a similar reason, the portraits are also just... fine. Greek, German, Polish-French, Spaniard, Italian, and Austrian. It's much more diverse than the buildings, but the Balkans, Nordics (including Latvia and Estonia), Benelux, and other smaller states remain unrepresented. Of course, changing anyone out would leave another unrepresented (though the obverse and reverse could both be used in harmony, why does the reverse have to be nondescript?).
If we're going for people, one thing I really like about the Swedish bills is that the person on the lowest denomination is specifically chosen to have an icon for children: Currently Astrid Lindgren and previously Selma Lagerlöf made the 20 krona bill distinctly "for the children". The choice of Bertha von Suttner for the highest denomination is one that I agree with -- and also aligned with the Swedish bank notes where the equivalent is held by Dag Hammarskjöld. Both ECB and Riksbanken chose a person best known for their pursuit of peace and unity of humankind.
Still, the beauty of the bridges is that they're European, not French or German.
All that aside, I'd hope for F or J stylistically. There's too much vectorization happening on most of the others. It feels like the others won't stand the test of time. G and C already feels ten years out of date imo.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurobridges_Spijkenisse