Ten years after the arrival of euro cash, the European Central Bank and the national central banks of the Eurosystem announce today that the banknotes will be renewed. A second series, named the “Europa” series, will gradually take the place of the notes in circulation since 2002. The first note to change will be the 5 euro: its full design is to be unveiled on 10 January 2013, and it will start circulating in May 2013.
The Europa-series 5 euro announced today: the public will see the complete design only at the unveiling of 10 January 2013.
The name is the announcement’s most visible choice. Europa is a figure from Greek mythology and the origin of the continent’s name, and her portrait will appear in the watermark and in the hologram of the new notes. For the first time, euro banknotes will carry a face. The Eurosystem presents three of the new security features in advance: the portrait watermark, the portrait hologram and the emerald number, a numeral that shifts colour when the note is tilted.
Just as important is what will not change. The new notes keep the “ages and styles” theme of the first series, with its windows, doorways and bridges, and each denomination keeps its familiar dominant colour. The refreshed designs are the work of Reinhold Gerstetter, an independent banknote designer based in Berlin, who adapts Robert Kalina’s originals rather than replacing them. The aim is for the public to recognise the new notes at first glance while checking them with stronger tools.
The rollout plan is deliberately unhurried: the denominations will be introduced in ascending order, one at a time, over several years. At this point the plan covers all seven values, from the 5 to the 500 euro. That last part of the announcement will not survive: in May 2016 the Governing Council decides to leave the 500 euro out of the Europa series, and the second family of notes ultimately stops at the 200 euro.
Behind the renewal is the ordinary arithmetic of banknote security. The first series was designed in the 1990s, and a decade of circulation gives counterfeiters time to study any note. Reissuing the denominations with new features benefits from years of technical progress and resets that race in the issuer’s favour.
The announcement is equally careful about the fate of the existing notes. The first series will not be withdrawn overnight: old and new notes will circulate side by side, the older ones will be retired gradually, and even after they lose legal tender they will keep their value and remain exchangeable at the national central banks with no time limit.
For the public the change begins as information rather than as money: no new note can be touched today, and a communication campaign across the euro area is planned for 2013. For collectors, however, this is the date on which the second generation of euro banknotes acquires its name and identity — the starting point of a transition that will run denomination by denomination until 2019.
