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Future euro banknote design proposals

ecb.europa.eu

31–40 of 338 posts

Re: Future euro banknote design proposals

#34

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'…

> 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?)

Re: Future euro banknote design proposals

#35
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Re: Future euro banknote design proposals

#36
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?

Re: Future euro banknote design proposals

#37
post #25

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'…

> 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.

Re: Future euro banknote design proposals

#38
post #11

Birds are clearly superior.

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.

Re: Future euro banknote design proposals

#40

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 the central institutions of the European Union. That’s why there’re portrayed in the notes
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