Collecting Information about Euro Notes

Dear All,
first of all I would like to greet everybody on this very
interesting newsgroup!!! I wanted to add my little contribution. So here
it is.

Euro Notes.
Despite what it may appear at first glance, Euro notes are not
equal. As most of you know, there are 12 European Countries
participating in the European Central Bank (ECB): Finland, Portugal,
Austria, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Italy, Ireland/Eire, France, Spain,
Germany, Greece, and Belgium. Euro notes however circulate also in other
4 little Countries (Vatican, Republic of San Marino, Andorra, and the
Princedom of Monaco), as well as in some French colonies in Carebbean,
North and South America, and Pacific.
Each active participating Country has been assigned an identifier
(a latin letter) which discriminate the notes it has printed from those
printed by others.
The identifiers currently in use a
L for Finland,
M for Portugal,
N for Austria,
P for the Netherlands,
R for Luxemburg,
S for Italy,
T for Ireland/Eire,
U for France,
V for Spain,
Y for Greece,
and Z for Belgium.
Although United Kingdom, Danmark, and Sweden do not currently
participate in the ECB, they have nonetheless been assigned an
identifier, should they change their mind in the next few years, as it
will very likely happen. These codes a
J for United Kingdom,
K for Sweden,
and W Danmark.
As of today, the European Union is made of 25 states and during the
next few years several of the newly member states will be allowed to
issue Euros. At the moment there are available just identifiers from A
to I, that is 9 identifiers. It is very likely that a new issue of Euro
is secretely already been developed to include all the potential member
states.
The reason for the letter encoding which appears as a prefix in the
serial number of every Euro note is to establish a security check. Every
letter has a numeric code associated. These codes start with 11 for A
and incrementally go through 36 for Z. To double check that a Euro note
is not a fake, one has to substitute such a code for the prefix letter,
then exlcude the last digit, and finally take the number obtained in
this way and divide it by 9. The integer remainder of the division
should then be complemented by 9, i.e. 9-remainder=complement. If the
resulting complement is the excluded digit, then the note is real.
Notes have also written in small characters the particular printing
company which made them and also the particular position on the sheet
occupied by that particular note.
Concerning the actual notes, not all participating countries have
felt the need to have an entire set of Euro available for circulation.
Several Countries, because of their small economy and level of richness,
decided to issue just the small denominations. As a note, I would like
to point out that Luxemburg (which is quite a rich Country within the
Union) decided that it did not need to issue any notes altogether.
Here I list what denominations were issued by each Country:
5, 10, 20, 50, 100 Euros: Finland, Portugal, Austria, Netherlands,
Italy, Ireland/Eire, France, Spain, Germany, Greece, and Belgium.
200, 500 Euros: Finland, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, France,
Spain, Germany, and Belgium.
It should also be noted that The Netherlands, Spain and Greece used
each two different printing companies for the 10 Euros. Ireland/Eire and
France also used two different companies for the 20 Euros. The 50 euros
was instead printed in two different printing firms by Finland, Germany
and Greece. The 100 Euro was printed in two different companies just by
France and Greece.
As a final remark, Euro notes design is quite nice but in my
opinion a little too dull. I have seen the new Canadian Dollars and I
have to say that they are really nice!!! I hope that next generation of
Euros will be more colorful and with nicer designs. My guess is that by
the end of this decade a new set will be out, and hopefully all member
states of the Union will be actively used.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my little contribution to the newsgroup.

Cheers to everybody,
Dr. Giovanni C. Pettinaro,
IBNS Life Member 166.

Giovanni C. Pettinaro wrote:

I wanted to add my little contribution. So here
it is.

An interesting summary. Thanks a lot :-)

As a note, I would like to point out that Luxemburg (which is quite a rich
Country within the Union) decided that it did not need to issue any notes
altogether.

That is a little misleading, I think. Luxembourg, or rather the BCL,
does issue euro notes - it's just that it does not use the "R" code on
the notes. Instead, the notes ordered by the BCL use the code of the
country where the printing facility is located.

Also, since Jan-2002 the national central banks (NCBs) have been using a
"pooling" system, that is, each NCB is responsible for issuing certain
notes only. Here is an overview of "which NCB makes what":
http://www.ecb.int/bc/faqbc/figures/...html#banknotes

As for the designs, I am pretty sure that the notes will be modified a
little. The European Council decided that the "map" on the coins will
soon reflect the enlarged EU, so I guess that something similar will
happen with the notes. While the euro notes simply show a map of Europe
that makes no difference between EU and non-EU countries, Cyprus and
Malta are not displayed on the current notes ...

Christian

Hi Christian,
very nice information on the link you posted!!! :-) I was not aware
of this system. I guess that futures issues of Euro notes will probably
be produced in this way without any reference to any member states,
otherwise any variation of membership would imply a replanning of the
notes!!! :-)
It would be interesting to know if there are any plans for
commemorative Euro issues.

Cheers,
Giovanni.


Christian Feldhaus wrote:
Giovanni C. Pettinaro wrote:


I wanted to add my little contribution. So here
it is.


An interesting summary. Thanks a lot :-)


As a note, I would like to point out that Luxemburg (which is quite a rich
Country within the Union) decided that it did not need to issue any notes
altogether.


That is a little misleading, I think. Luxembourg, or rather the BCL,
does issue euro notes - it's just that it does not use the "R" code on
the notes. Instead, the notes ordered by the BCL use the code of the
country where the printing facility is located.

Also, since Jan-2002 the national central banks (NCBs) have been using a
"pooling" system, that is, each NCB is responsible for issuing certain
notes only. Here is an overview of "which NCB makes what":
http://www.ecb.int/bc/faqbc/figures/...html#banknotes

As for the designs, I am pretty sure that the notes will be modified a
little. The European Council decided that the "map" on the coins will
soon reflect the enlarged EU, so I guess that something similar will
happen with the notes. While the euro notes simply show a map of Europe
that makes no difference between EU and non-EU countries, Cyprus and
Malta are not displayed on the current notes ...

Christian