For me, across all of them only two felt actually decent for a bank note (B & E, I is okay, just not used to bank notes in that orientation, same for J, but that one should be more monochrome). Either they were too vibrant or the design was too busy/had unnecesary elements.
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.
I prefer the Birds & Rivers theme because nobody is expecting a specific bird to meet some arbitrary ideal whereas if you put identifiable humans on a banknote people start to mistake their inevitable flaws for a desirable property. I feel this more strongly for statues, but it seems desirable for the Euro or any potential international currency too.
> if you put identifiable humans on a banknote people start to mistake their inevitable flaws for a desirable property
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'm partial for statues, and birds and rivers is a good theme. I feel like if they sticked to the semi-monochrome of the previous notes I'd be more favorable to them aswell. Monochrome might be the wrong word, ESL.
Monochrome means "single colour". Typically shades of that colour are included, so if something was dark purple lines on a light purple background we might say that's monochrome. In some cases it's taken to mean that there's just black/ grey/ white, but here it makes sense to say that e.g. one note is green, another blue, but no individuals notes are a mix of green and blue, they're monochrome.
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.
I try to pay everything in cash as much as I can, so it's nice to see the banknotes get some love from the ECB (even though the absence of €1 and €2 banknotes still hurts…).
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 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.
> plus it would be difficult to agree on who to feature between the 21 € states.
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.
I don't like to have silhouettes instead of people on the back, and that buildings related to the current institutions are featured on so many designs
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
> These are a current necessities, but nothing to sanctuarize for the future.
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.
That's exactly why they are a better choice, like the imaginary bridges on current Euro banknotes.
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 wish I've seen this before clicking 2359 times :/ Thanks anyway at least now I can share the right experience with people so they won't suffer like me.
Not sure if it is much better, the images are tiny on that version and the companion text explaining the designs seems to be missin (though that sort of text you can usually do without).
I found it hard to vote just by saying "I like this design" for each one individually. Since we have a set of limited option, I'd rather compare and pick the ones I prefer in comparison of the others.
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
It's very WIP, but I found this approach useful to fill the survey, so why not share
I scanned through it and settled on Design H as well, birds and buildings. One thing I started to notice while looking over the design that I had a strong preference for the number to be in the corners. The last two one are "portrait" which feels weird to me but might be more appealing to a younger generation.
In Canada, we have ONE bill with a vertical orientation. [0] The other notes (5$, 20$, 50$, 100$), though designed a bit earlier than then vertical 10$ note but definitely in the same style, are horizontal. There is also a discontinued, but still circulating, horizontal 10$ bill.
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.
I can get behind some comments here that the buildings are representative of the institution of Europe, not the people. I love the birds, and probably naturally settled to the one where the buildings are less visible ^^
So many of these have some building as the backdrop, but all the buildings are modernist skyscrapers and uninspired office buildings
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?
These are EU government buildings; unlike the bridges in the current notes, they’re real structures, not an archetype. The EU likes a giant office block, generally.
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.
I don't know that it's about "Bland and inoffensive" so much as about recognition that differences are fine. Two football teams don't agree about which team is best - but they do agree the rules of football. Without that there is no game.
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.
I mean, half of these proposals put specific people from specific countries on banknotes. So it's hard to argue that it would be impossible to do the same with buildings.
Yup terribly bad. I pick the birds: those with portraits of people are really badly fucked up and the faces do not integrate well at all with the notes.
The current ones are much better looking than any of those.
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.
> 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.
Old bank notes are not in circulation forever. They are accounted for by serial numbers. Banks and ATMs can process the serials and designs and report them. Eventually bank notes get pulled out of circulation. So an old bank note is by default suspicious and gets checked more thoroughly. Counterfeiters mostly benefit by blending in with the masses, so having some old note can raise suspicion.
I love H, and I mean it - not only acceptable but even pleasing to me, quite surprising to say. A and B stayed too long in the sun, C indeed is PowerPoint heaven, D is fun but in a circus entry ticket way, E reminds me of a school book and not in the good way, F ouch my eyes too much going on, G okayish but doesn't feel like a banknote but rather... flyers? I - spilled its colors in a watercolor cleaning water way, and finally J is too photo-realistic to look banknote-ish to me.
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?)
The survey is completely useless. Just let me vote on pairs of designs which I like more, then aggregate the data. It's not that hard to program and a hundred times more accurate and useful.
F looks incredible, H is also great. They are all pretty good, except for maybe A and E which I find dull. I prefer the birds and buildings, though of the finalists with people on them I find C rather striking.
Hopefully whichever wins will look like the original design after being finalized for printing, it would be a shame if they had to dull the colors or rearrange the layout for security features etc
Why is it all either the same people or the same birds?
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.
Offensively dull. One shudders to think about the endless bickering that went in to this.
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.
I don’t know; I think the fact that the designs are so different from each other is actually a testament to the fact that the brief was actually pretty well written, because it allowed so many different interpretations!
And that’s only the finalist 10; I’d genuinely love to see the whole submission set.
I wonder if it would have permissible to submit the birds (obviously great) and the buildings as as they could have looked if they embodied the combined architectural prowess of the union.. in place of the vitreous crimes against aesthetics that happened to be cheap enough when construction started.
As an Austrian, it feels a bit annoying that the Germans got their one famous composer - they're kind of our thing! Why not Mozart, Strauss, Haydn, Schubert?
It's also unfortunate that the nice peaceful bird motif was paired with the ugly modern buildings on the other side.
Don't you worry. This is a political process and politicians are basically big children, so no country will ever accept notes without someone famous from their country on the note.
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.
TBH the only acceptable approach here would be similar to coins - where each member state may print their own people on some of the notes to keep representation.
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.)
At least you can be sure that Germans won't "adopt" them, e.g. you can often read "the german architect Hundertwasser" or "the german author Kafka" :-/
On the other side: most classic composers are from times when there was no Germany. E.g. J. S. Bach is from Sachsen-Eisenach :-)
I'm sure most countries will have their pet peeves with this; I've seen a bunch of Polish people being upset about the phrasing of Marie Curie's name already.
The people and birds (and I think the buildings as well) were selected by a committee beforehand, to make sure they represent all of the EU, aren't controversial, yadayada...
Yeah, the motifs was probably part of the brief as picking the symbols to represent the entire EU is incredibly political and its just best to separate that discussion from the deeply subjective "what looks best" discussion.
That's pretty terrible. I guess only design H looks like it could be real money.
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.
> “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.
I don't like having people on banknotes, for the simple reason that one day a French lobby group would decide that Napoleon is a great European who deserves to be on one.
I think the buildings are ugly, and D does its best to obscure them. So that's my winner.
That’s Beethoven. I know his hair is a bit long, but that’s a man. He does look a bit miffed, but can you blame him? Being deaf when you’re a composer must not have been pleasant.
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?
> I didn't even know who the person on the 200€ bill is until today
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”.
As an Austrian, Bertha von Suttner is a big deal. First woman to win a Nobel Peace prize (and probably the reason that prize exists in the first place!), second woman to win a Nobel ever (after Curie). Your ignorance of her is not an indictment of "woke bureaucrats".
Daft Punk honestly sounds cool, but we probably shouldn't be putting any living personalities on there. Feels kinda weird.
> 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.
For me, across all of them only two felt actually decent for a bank note (B & E, I is okay, just not used to bank notes in that orientation, same for J, but that one should be more monochrome). Either they were too vibrant or the design was too busy/had unnecesary elements.
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.
I prefer the Birds & Rivers theme because nobody is expecting a specific bird to meet some arbitrary ideal whereas if you put identifiable humans on a banknote people start to mistake their inevitable flaws for a desirable property. I feel this more strongly for statues, but it seems desirable for the Euro or any potential international currency too.
> if you put identifiable humans on a banknote people start to mistake their inevitable flaws for a desirable property
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'm partial for statues, and birds and rivers is a good theme. I feel like if they sticked to the semi-monochrome of the previous notes I'd be more favorable to them aswell. Monochrome might be the wrong word, ESL.
For reference, the two previous runs at the top of the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes
Monochrome means "single colour". Typically shades of that colour are included, so if something was dark purple lines on a light purple background we might say that's monochrome. In some cases it's taken to mean that there's just black/ grey/ white, but here it makes sense to say that e.g. one note is green, another blue, but no individuals notes are a mix of green and blue, they're monochrome.
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.
It's a shame due to Brexit there will be no Count Binface €10.
I try to pay everything in cash as much as I can, so it's nice to see the banknotes get some love from the ECB (even though the absence of €1 and €2 banknotes still hurts…).
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.
> absence of €1 and €2 banknotes
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.
Me too, #NormalizeCash
Cash is freedom.
Cash is king.
That’s not meant to be interpreted literally tho
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.
> plus it would be difficult to agree on who to feature between the 21 € states.
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...
Birds are clearly superior.
I don't like to have silhouettes instead of people on the back, and that buildings related to the current institutions are featured on so many designs
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
> These are a current necessities, but nothing to sanctuarize for the future.
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.
Design H ftw
I feel like birds are the superior front, but boring EU buildings are the worse back.
I'd like the birds front with the other option for the back (public squares or something?)
I want someone to slap a blackbird on my bank notes. Preferably all denominations.
Birds are the way.
Birds aren't real.
That's exactly why they are a better choice, like the imaginary bridges on current Euro banknotes.
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.
Exactly.
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.
A better link might be https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/ht..., which has all of the proposals on a single page for easier browsing.
Thanks! changed from https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/ht... above. I've put the original URL in the toptext.
I wish I've seen this before clicking 2359 times :/ Thanks anyway at least now I can share the right experience with people so they won't suffer like me.
Also I like birds. H looks nice.
Not sure if it is much better, the images are tiny on that version and the companion text explaining the designs seems to be missin (though that sort of text you can usually do without).
The actual images are pretty big so you can just use your browser's native zooming capabilities.
I found that much nicer than constantly clicking to show the reverse sides, but to each their own!
The article one also misses on the size differences across notes. Not the biggest deal, but should be shown.
I found it hard to vote just by saying "I like this design" for each one individually. Since we have a set of limited option, I'd rather compare and pick the ones I prefer in comparison of the others.
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:
It's very WIP, but I found this approach useful to fill the survey, so why not shareI scanned through it and settled on Design H as well, birds and buildings. One thing I started to notice while looking over the design that I had a strong preference for the number to be in the corners. The last two one are "portrait" which feels weird to me but might be more appealing to a younger generation.
In Canada, we have ONE bill with a vertical orientation. [0] The other notes (5$, 20$, 50$, 100$), though designed a bit earlier than then vertical 10$ note but definitely in the same style, are horizontal. There is also a discontinued, but still circulating, horizontal 10$ bill.
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)
I can get behind some comments here that the buildings are representative of the institution of Europe, not the people. I love the birds, and probably naturally settled to the one where the buildings are less visible ^^
Added 20+ languages in the mix, based on the available languages in the survey
So many of these have some building as the backdrop, but all the buildings are modernist skyscrapers and uninspired office buildings
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?
> but all the buildings are modernist skyscrapers and uninspired office buildings
Because they are the european institutions, eg the EU parliament building, EU comission, etc.
They are mostly office buildings.
That does not mean they were the only possible choice. Personally, I find having my continent represented by them an extreme insult.
These are the central institutions of the European Union. That’s why there’re portrayed in the notes
These are EU government buildings; unlike the bridges in the current notes, they’re real structures, not an archetype. The EU likes a giant office block, generally.
Disclaimer: IDGAF haven't used cash in years
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.
I don't know that it's about "Bland and inoffensive" so much as about recognition that differences are fine. Two football teams don't agree about which team is best - but they do agree the rules of football. Without that there is no game.
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.
I mean, half of these proposals put specific people from specific countries on banknotes. So it's hard to argue that it would be impossible to do the same with buildings.
Decent enough, but quite boring. The nicest notes I know about currently are the Norwegian ones https://www.norges-bank.no/tema/Sedler-og-mynter/gyldige-sed...
But the Canadian ones are physically impressive, they don't really crumble, and seem immune to both liquid and tearing.
Flip sides on all of them look like they are taken from a random free vector illustrations archive.
Yup terribly bad. I pick the birds: those with portraits of people are really badly fucked up and the faces do not integrate well at all with the notes.
The current ones are much better looking than any of those.
I wonder why do we need new notes... but I guess running some competition is not a tragedy.
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.
> I wonder why do we need new notes...
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.
> 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.
Old bank notes are not in circulation forever. They are accounted for by serial numbers. Banks and ATMs can process the serials and designs and report them. Eventually bank notes get pulled out of circulation. So an old bank note is by default suspicious and gets checked more thoroughly. Counterfeiters mostly benefit by blending in with the masses, so having some old note can raise suspicion.
Maybe it is also just fun...
The old ones get pulled out of circulation and usually stop being accepted at most places, or at least get more scrutiny.
I love H, and I mean it - not only acceptable but even pleasing to me, quite surprising to say. A and B stayed too long in the sun, C indeed is PowerPoint heaven, D is fun but in a circus entry ticket way, E reminds me of a school book and not in the good way, F ouch my eyes too much going on, G okayish but doesn't feel like a banknote but rather... flyers? I - spilled its colors in a watercolor cleaning water way, and finally J is too photo-realistic to look banknote-ish to me.
PS you can even vote for them! https://surveys.ecb.europa.eu/10b/neweuro/
> I wonder why do we need new notes...
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?)
Are they going to switch to plastic while they're at it?
That's the only thing I'll miss if Romania ever switches to Euro. Cash you can launder. Literally.
I assumed everywhere except the USA had converted to plastic... It's so much better.
There were some clearly superior suggestions they left out: https://xcancel.com/The_Davos_Man/status/2080383908823081426
;)
The survey is completely useless. Just let me vote on pairs of designs which I like more, then aggregate the data. It's not that hard to program and a hundred times more accurate and useful.
Incidentally, there’s an open role at the ECB for “Traineeship in environmental sustainability in banknote production”, sounds like a fun job for the right person: https://talent.ecb.europa.eu/careers/JobDetail/Traineeship-i...
F looks incredible, H is also great. They are all pretty good, except for maybe A and E which I find dull. I prefer the birds and buildings, though of the finalists with people on them I find C rather striking. Hopefully whichever wins will look like the original design after being finalized for printing, it would be a shame if they had to dull the colors or rearrange the layout for security features etc
B (with the bird) brings back 100 guilder vibes. https://europost.nl/winkel/bankbiljetten/nederland-ba/nederl...
art from Milos Zlatanovic for Serbian notes is still unmatched.
Yeah but would Croatia use notes designed by a Serb?
Never underestimate the pettiness of man.
Why is it all either the same people or the same birds?
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.
Yes, the motifs were selected ~1.5y ago: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2025/html/ecb.pr2501...
Offensively dull. One shudders to think about the endless bickering that went in to this.
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.
I don’t know; I think the fact that the designs are so different from each other is actually a testament to the fact that the brief was actually pretty well written, because it allowed so many different interpretations!
And that’s only the finalist 10; I’d genuinely love to see the whole submission set.
I wonder if it would have permissible to submit the birds (obviously great) and the buildings as as they could have looked if they embodied the combined architectural prowess of the union.. in place of the vitreous crimes against aesthetics that happened to be cheap enough when construction started.
Pentagons are plenty occult fnord!
As an Austrian, it feels a bit annoying that the Germans got their one famous composer - they're kind of our thing! Why not Mozart, Strauss, Haydn, Schubert?
It's also unfortunate that the nice peaceful bird motif was paired with the ugly modern buildings on the other side.
> Mozart
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
Don't you worry. This is a political process and politicians are basically big children, so no country will ever accept notes without someone famous from their country on the note.
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.
nothing works in the long term for the right definition of long
TBH the only acceptable approach here would be similar to coins - where each member state may print their own people on some of the notes to keep representation.
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.)
> Germans got their one famous composer
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.
Bertha von Suttner on the 200 EUR is Austrian
I've never seen a 200€ note irl (and not the no more printed but still legal tender 500€ either)
At least you can be sure that Germans won't "adopt" them, e.g. you can often read "the german architect Hundertwasser" or "the german author Kafka" :-/
On the other side: most classic composers are from times when there was no Germany. E.g. J. S. Bach is from Sachsen-Eisenach :-)
In a similar vein, who gets to claim Nicola Tesla?
Europe used to be much more of a mess than today's neatly drawn nation states, retroactively assigning origin is a silly endeavour.
I'm sure most countries will have their pet peeves with this; I've seen a bunch of Polish people being upset about the phrasing of Marie Curie's name already.
Because he composed the anthem?
The people and birds (and I think the buildings as well) were selected by a committee beforehand, to make sure they represent all of the EU, aren't controversial, yadayada...
Yeah, the motifs was probably part of the brief as picking the symbols to represent the entire EU is incredibly political and its just best to separate that discussion from the deeply subjective "what looks best" discussion.
Definitely birds all the way, with fashionable vertical design.
I love they don't explain what's in the banknote. Am I suppose to know everything? jeez
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2025/html/ecb.pr2501...
That's pretty terrible. I guess only design H looks like it could be real money.
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.
What's with all the birds? Also I like A the best. It's very modern.
> What's with all the birds?
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...
They really shouldn't be people. Birds are fine, but I like the bridges, why are the moving away from those?
Should let companies advertise on banknotes.
I and J are bad fits.
E
Announcement release: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/date/2026/html/ecb.pr2607...
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...
I don't like having people on banknotes, for the simple reason that one day a French lobby group would decide that Napoleon is a great European who deserves to be on one.
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.
Who is the smug lady?
That’s Beethoven. I know his hair is a bit long, but that’s a man. He does look a bit miffed, but can you blame him? Being deaf when you’re a composer must not have been pleasant.
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...
I don't like the designs.
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?
> I didn't even know who the person on the 200€ bill is until today
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”.
As an Austrian, Bertha von Suttner is a big deal. First woman to win a Nobel Peace prize (and probably the reason that prize exists in the first place!), second woman to win a Nobel ever (after Curie). Your ignorance of her is not an indictment of "woke bureaucrats".
Daft Punk honestly sounds cool, but we probably shouldn't be putting any living personalities on there. Feels kinda weird.
> 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-...
I'd rather have Henry Kissinger on the note.
Yikes.