I once met an american in my country in northern Europe, he had saved money whole childhood so he can come to travel in Europe and he told me that our money looks like a childrens money :D and that American is more serious :D I laughed soo hard :D now that I have visited US myself I would say that I like EUR much more than a $ , dollars look all the same
@@HK-gm8peif you look for the Dutch gulden that’s more like Monopoly money but very difficult to copie a lot of technics used for these billets are used for the euro
The different banknote sizes are an accessibility feature for blind people to be able to tell the difference and the colours are chosen so that people with colour-blindness can still tell them apart. They're very well thought out.
True, bue you needed with the first serie to put them around your middle finger to know their width, and so value (100, 200 and 500 have the same width but come on, they're not ommonly used) With the second serie, the tactile stripes allows blinf people to recognize a note more easily, the 5-ish (5 and 50) notes have no gap in the stripe, the 1-ish (10 and 100) have 1 gap in the stripe, and the 2-ish (20 and 200 have two). The window/gate shape is also hollowed in paper under the holographic stripe, and can be easily recognised by touching.
@@saff_cozzie becourse that is not what they are selected for the colours are selected to make it easier for ppl with limited vision who cannot read the number ^^ though you might aswell use colours that ppl who are colour blind can differentiate as ppl with colourblindness can also become visually em-pared
Fun fact: I think the Netherlands actually build those bridges afterwards over some small rivers etc.. Those cheeky Bastards can now claim "Yea it came all from us". But it was funny when it was revealed.
@@stephanos2758I wouldn't say pesky, the Dutch are something special as all other European people, each one in it's own way. That is why I like to be European, diversity!
The best thing about the notes all being different sizes and clearly contrasting colors is that if you have a bunch of different ones in your wallet, like 5s, 10s, 20s and 50s, it makes it super easy to find the one you need at the moment, you dont have to take out the entire wad and flip through it, you just look in your wallet and grab the ones you need (specially if you're a bit OCD like me and prefer to keep them sorted by value in your wallet :P) Also, even the 100 and 200 ones aren't THAT big so at least in my experience, they dont really stick out of your wallet like you were concerned about, unless of course you have a really small wallet :P
I know what you mean, I'm also sorting the bills by value... and the reflecting stripes have to be in one direction, so they're all facing the same way... When you need 65€, grab a 50, a 10 and a 5... The sorting makes it easier and faster.
and don’t forget Braille! So that blind people don't get ripped off when shopping, that's why and the different sizes.... and the different coin edges make it easier for blind people to distinguish between them
Yeah, it is very handy as you just open and know where exactly 10, 20 or 50 will be in wallet (and I do like to have "similar" number of each in wallet just because... it looks sooo cool with all sizes (okay, 5 probably is tiny bit too small for my taste... (that is what she said, hehe)
The bills having different sizes isn't just for accessibility but also for safety. The paper used requires specific manufacturing processes and it's generally impossible to obtain for anyone other than the governments. A counterfeiting trick that is (physically) possible to do with bank notes that are the same size is getting a bunch of small ones, bleaching them and reprinting them with the higher value, thus turning each of your 1 dollars into 100 dollars. Security systems of course will notice, but regular cash using people likely won't.
Euro banknotes and coins are developed in such a way that blind and partially sighted people (red-green blindness too) can handle them with confidence.
Through the 90's, my father was a lorry driver.. "International Duty".. I remember when he was home, he had a bag full of compartiments, all of them from a different country.. All the way from Portugal to Poland and Hungary. I spent lots of time figuring out a lot about those countries, just by how their coins looked.
There are several more safety features than mentioned like taktile ones to identify fake notes easier in everyday life (like a cashier at rush hour...). The different sizes helps vision impaired people to identify a certain bank note.
Not only that, the lines he shows that links when wrapped around are actually raised up from the paper so that they have a tactile feel like braille and each denomiation has a different pattern... making it very easy to distinguish by touch....
@@martinschalken7583 The Euro bills and coins also have features. Bills: "The Euro banknotes were designed with heavy input from Blind organizations and have a very simple distinguishing feature: big bills are big; little bills are little. The notes have some intaglio printing, which gives them relief marks that can be felt. The €200 and €500 bills have special tactile marks on them as well, for added security and assuredness when dealing with such large amounts."
Having worked as a cashier at a supermarket in my teens when they introduced these, the amount of validation methods on these bills is crazy, honestly props to whoever manages to make proper fake ones that would fool a well trained cashier or machine, for as far as i'm aware that has still not been done. (having said that, there's probably a reason why they made new ones with a few more validation methods, but it's probably just to 'stay on top' of it) Fake bridges are no longer fake, an artist in the Netherlands (Robin Stam) was like "hey those are cool bridges" so he got approval from a town to make miniature versions over a small river, typical Dutch things hehe. Sizes vary less then you might think (you don't really notice unless you actually compare them side by side) and the largest bills still fit a normal size wallet. Having said that you can see if somebody has 'big bills' on them just by the color, not by the 'size of their wad' ^^
I need to disepoint you i have seen some bills that can even pas a uv light and a machine soo yeah they are out but they are rare (i'm speaking from belgium)
the 50 euro bill was faked for quite a while, also, the 1 and 2 cents no longer exist. Fun fact, the first series were designed by the dutch. You could see that also in the design, the gulden(the name off the dutch money) was looking similar to the euro bills. And not everybody liked them( too colourful).
@@euhm The 1 and 2 cents are still around and are legal for payment. A lot of countries have stopped producing them and prices are rounded up or down to the closest 5 ct multiple in a lot of places.
@@KeesBoons You are right, you can still use the 1 and 2 cents, and they are still around, but as far as I know, the production has stopped completely.
A lot of people have mentioned the different size bills being handy with visually impaired people but there is even better feature to help those in need. The lines on the edges that meet when folded like shown in the video are actually elevated and they are different in every bill. So basically a blind person can feel those elevated lines with their finger to tell which bill you're holding.
I remember the problems and controversy when the Euro was introduced. Older generations still calculare back to the old valuta to determine how much something costs. There is also still a great nostalgia to the old notes. Like our 25 gulden note was called the lighthouse and another note was the sunflower.
Definitely prefer different sized bank notes, never mind the difference that makes for blind users. I may be wrong, but the US seems the only country with notes the same size in my experience.
Ya, travelling in Europe pre-Euro was a pain in the ass. I had to do it a few times while on training trips over there. Post Euro was a breeze, could drive around from Germany to Luxembourg to Belgium, to Holland and have a detour into France on the way back with no problems with money. All Euros are accepted everywhere, just great. Oh, by the way, glad to see you wearing a Wisconsin Badgers hat, LOL, Go Badgers!
I miss that Money changing a litle bit. Because, the left over Money , was always a kind of Souvenir .( I have still some Coins from my Schooltripp to Italy, and some Coins from the GDR (East Germany)
Not only pre-Euro, but also pre-digital it was a drag to go on holiday to Italy. You needed to have German Deutsch Mark bills, Swiss Franc bills and Italian Lire bills. Otherwise you couldn’t get fuel or something to eat or drink on the way. All currency bills were taken back in by Dutch banks, but not the coins. We gave these coins to charity.
Well, no pain in the ass, just something you get used to. For the usual vacation destinations we didn't change back the foreign money. And when a customer of us opened a new branch in (then young) Slovenia, I (Austria) just had two wallets. As easy as that.
Before the Euro, we were used to exchange rates, different currencies, etc. It wasn’t such a big deal for private travelers in my opinion. With Eurocheques it also was fairly easy to get the local currency. To me it was just an added feeling of being outside of Germany. As a southern German, I knew the exchange rates of Francs, Swiss Franks, Schilling, Lira and Pesetas. However the Euro was a good step into a common European market.
Pre-Euro travel was a pain. Going to the bank and paying a few to “buy” currency. Once ATM machines started working with your card in other countries it wasn’t as bad but it was still hard to adjust for the difference in values. The Euro has made it much simpler.
Being portuguese and occasionally going to Spain for motorbike meetings before the Euro, I never felt the complications associated with having to trade currency when I went to Spain. I had the good fortune that the exchange rate between our Escudos (the former portuguese currency) and the Peseta (the former spanish currency) was almost 1:1 and our neighbours had no problem accepting our currency for payments there. Mind you that those meetings were usually not very far from the border but in any case, we also accepted Pesetas as a form of payment on our side of the border as well. 🙂
fun fact all the bridges are real as a dutch chad artist was like i like these lets make them irl so now we have small bridges to the design of the euro notes so yes they are real now lol
Something to note about the Danish Kroner/Crown, is that while it has not been replaced by the Euro, it has still been directly linked with the Euro value of €1 = 7.4 DKK, and if the Euro rises or falls, the DKK stays linked. It makes exchange rates very easy and predictable despite not adopting the currency itself, its value is inherited regardless.
You are correct about the 500 euro note, they are being fased out because they were mainly used by criminals to move large ammounts of money. Most stores dont even accept them. Same with the 200 notes.
Yep, I had a €200 note and it was almost impossible to move it on in France. The €500 notes were indeed well used by criminals, allegedly it is surprising how much money in 500's you can hide in an innocuous 20 cigarette packet. ISTR €25,000 is the number.
The 500 notes instantly disappeared from circulation as soon as a new batch was produced. And the few people saw were fresh from the back. Never to be seen again. The only use was for black market deposits. Drug lords don't need full houses to hide all the cash anymore, a few boxes were enough. I've heard that some people was being payed 520 for each 500 note they can find....
I would not say mainly, but yes criminals used 500€ notes a lot. Originally they were not intended tp public use at all but mainly for banks to easily transfer money between them.
You are absolutely right, the bigger notes stick out. This is because so a blind person can immediatly figure out just by size, what note he has in his hand.
and the diagonal lines (6:52) at the edges are tactile and double as markers for blind people. 5 / 50 € have no gap, 10 / 100 € have one and 20 / 200 € have two gaps to help them not confuse the similar sized denominations
The original Dutch notes, the Guilder notes were the notes who stood as basic for the money. We had them special for blind people. We also had the colors standing out and we had already very good safety measures. We had purple, yellow, orange, green, blue and red money, and was appraised around the world. The Euro’s are looking good, but the Dutch were art.
Before the euro traveling in Europe was a hassle. I live in Oostende, Belgium and in 45 minutes driving north I'm in the Netherlands and about the same going south I'm in France. Before the euro I always had French Francs and Netherland Guldens at home for when I went to France and The Netherlands for a day. The last years before the euro came it was a bit easier to get foreign currency because you could just go to a local ATM and get the countries' currency with a Belgium bank card. But I remember a time (I was born in 1972) when you actually had to go to the bank or a money exchange place to convert some money. If you went abroad for a few weeks you had to carry traveler's checks because they were in your name and safer than carrying weeks worth of money in your wallet.
We went from Austria through Italy and France to Spain. So you needed 3 foreign currencies on the way. It helps if you have at least a bit of mathematics at your hand. In the end it's just some factors you need to work with on any price. And we still need them e.g. for Scandinavia. One time my mother saw some ham in Norway which she liked. When I told her the price we didn't buy it 🙂.
@@HenrikJansson78 I don't remember Sweden exactly, but in DK and N I found places where only local cash was possible or Swish(or similar) which is not possible for tourists. The calculations remain to know what the price really is.
@@reinhard8053 On our last vacation in Sweden and Norway we encountered just two of these occasions. Once a "campground" (under quotation marks... 😉) didn't accept credit cards and offered us to stay without payment but finally accepted a 10 Euro bill. And once we were not able to donate to a church because they only accepted Swish. Every opponent of the "Digital Euro" here in Austria should once go abroad with open eyes...
Germany had a 1000 Deutsche Mark notes, worth about 500 Euro. And Switzerland has a 1000 Swiss Franc notes (worth currently about 1000 Euro). At some banks, when you withdraw CHF 1000, you will get such a note. I’ve paid with one in a supermarket and even a bar, though they did check it carefully in the latter.
The size and the different colors on each note, help the people who have troubles reading, or have a bad eyesight. The blind can rely on the stripes on the short edge as you can feel those. On the 5 euro notes the ribbing is continuous, on the 10 euro notes the ribbing is interrupted once with a smooth surface and on the 20 euro notes the ribbing is interrupted twice.
The major benefit of having different size and colored bills is that you can simply pull the right bill out of your wallet without ever having to really think much. I simply look at the bills in my wallet (which are ordered based on value and thus size), and pull out the right one. This also prevents you from having to show around how much money you have with you, as you can simply keep it hidden inside of the wallet.
As far as I know the different sizes were partially for convenience (easy to spot the higher denominations) but also to allow blind people to accurately feel which bill they are holding, so they don't have to rely on the kindness of strangers when doing a cash transaction.
The strips on the edge, that meets perfect with the other side, are made of a thicker ink that you can feel. And the pattern of these is different for each note. So the "feeling feature" is also there.
@@davidbarry994 Yeah, but you can't use Braille in the EU, as there's so many different languages - there are different braille systems for different languages. Braille isn't universal as many people thinks.
In 1988 Australia was the first to introduce the polymer (plastic) bank note to the world with numerous security measures making it all most impossible counterfeit. The last series has a lot more security features including the $5 note which has a bird in flight viewed when holding the note a special way.
The coins have some interesting features too. They are arranged in 3 sets the first 2 of 3 each and the last with only 2 1 2 5 10 20 50 €1 €2 (presumably space for €5) The 1 and 5 in every series are essentially the same other than the 5 being larger The 2 has a distinctive Tactile feature to help tell it apart 1 and 5 cents have smooth edges 2 has a smooth edge with a groove all the way around 10 and 50 have quite a coarse bumpy edge milling 20 has single concave bumps every so often €1 has fine knurling with a nickel brass around cupronikel composition €2 has alternating fine knurling and smooth with a cupronikel around nickel brass €5 if it ever gets made will be bimetallic the same as €1 (nickel brass outer, cupronikel inner) with continuous knurling
I am from '83, and remember the Euro coming. I found some Guilders, have them laying around the desk, adding 'dubbeltjes' and 'kwartjes' when I find them.
The size of the banknotes and the patterns on the edges on the coins is there to assist the visually impaired so they don't have to ask for help and can be independent and don't be fooled.
Video didn't mention that coins also have accessibility feature with different edges as accessability feature. Was working with a lot of old people when we introduced Euro and showing them edges of coins, along with growing size of banknotes really made it easier for them to get used to new money.
The euro coins are also great, with logical size/material sequence (three copper coins growing in size for 1-2-5, three brass ones growing in size, two bimetallic ones). And they have clear value IN NUMERALS, not some weird wording like "one dime." (Who knows before visiting the U.S. that this is 10 cents? Also, this coin is much smaller than 5 cents.)
Modern polymer banknotes were first developed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation or CSIRO and first issued as currency in Australia during 1988.
Fun fact: The zeros in the multiple small, yellow numbers dotted around on US bills (except the $1 and $2) are laid out in the same shape as the EURion constellation so that they trigger the same software check as EU bills when anyone tries to copy them.
@@reesofraft4166 the video never mentioned US currency. I was pointing out that the feature that IWrocker praised as "next level security" was also present on US notes.
Remember how he said that all the bridges are fictional? Well, they were ... a Dutch architect when asked to design bridges for a Dutch city called Spijkenisse designed them to look like the ones on the Euro notes.
01:35 There are flight, too, but there is also a common border. You passed through a huge tunnel and needed some other currency. Same for maritimal borders crosses.
Half-Asleep Chris is actually best known for his Lego video's. His production value is through the roof. There's a ton of animation, editing and other work that goes into them.
I'm surprised the video you saw didn't go into more detail about the coins. For example, some coins have different edges to make it easier for blind people to distinguish coins more quickly than by guessing size.
Big problem for same size, same colour banknotes is the ease of mistaking the value note being passed in less ideal light or dirt state and especially for people with vision issues. Want to pass a $1 but given size and colour are the same actually paying with a $10 or worse $100, because in the dim light, or as a set of notes handed, or just in hurry hand the wrong value over. Made far more a possibility if vision impaired, even wearing glasses might be enough. Similar can trick a person receiving a set of notes, example fail to note one or more actual $1 included in place of $10 . Or maybe in hurry or not having correct glasses on. With sizes and colours differing that mistake possibility is very much reduced. These Euro notes are like the well known Australian notes, plastic, and more durable. Many features are like the Australian notes, plus they have made own security features, made possibly by the Australian developed process of coloured plastic notes. Also like current Australian notes, I believe the Euro notes now also have varied number of dimples, for easy identifying by touch for vision impaired people, who as mentioned above already benefit from size and colour differences too.
My father worked as a printer at the German federal printing press pre Euro. He mostly printed 10 Deutsche Mark notes and passports. German bank notes had similar security features with the underlying idea to make replicating them with all the security features too expensive for forgers to still make a profit. For the same reason, it takes quite a lot of skill, knowledge and sophisticated machinery to produce them. Any mistake that causes faulty notes is very costly.
Croatia now uses the Euro as of 1st January 2023, so this is slightly out of date. Also, the strips on the sides of the notes aren't just a security feature. They're slightly raised bumps and have different patterns for different denominations, making it easier for blind or partially sighted people to tell them apart.
Paris to Rome by car is about 15-16 hours or you can take the train and enjoy the ride! The colors and different sizes are for the people who have disabilities ex blind people.
The different color and size of euro banknotes for each denomination is a huge help for people who cannot see perfectly. This is the actual reason. Therefore, the color and size have not changed. I wear glasses, but I can safely pay without them.
Notes :) Different sized & coloured notes (aka "Metric Notes") are so people can easily tell a 5 from a 100. The wrap-around lines are for a quick check, say at a shop. Aust is losing our 5c soon. Round up! _Tbh, these are sorta decent-ish Australian style notes, but they have to be a bit bland to not offend anyone._
Thats because Australia developed and patented it. It's Australian innovation and security, when you look at all these notes, in all countries who use it, Australia makes money through the patent.
Afaik the main argument for the different sizes is so severely visually impaired or even fully blind people can easily identify the bills by touch. That is also why the coins are different sizes and all have differently shaped ridges and notches on the edges. And on the notes the diagonal lines on the edges are not just a security feature. They have different patterns, so they are identifiable by touch. 5 and 50, 10 and 100, 20 and 200 have the same "patterns", but in combination with the size of the note it's easy tell which one you have. As well as the picture print and large denomination numbers on the front, which are printed in a way they can be felt.
Just like American Quarters figure the 50 states ( Which I collected when I lived in the states) here in Europe, each country has its personalized country design behind their 2 euro, 1 euro, 50 cents, 20 cents, 10 cents and 1, 2, 5 cents designs (different in each coin). In America is just in the quarters (25 cents) coins. So Irish has a Shamrock, Finland has swams, Italy has the colosseum, Greek has an Owl, Spain has Cervantes, the Netherlands have Erasmus of Rotterdam, etc...
Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic still have their own currency. Ireland, the Baltic states and Greece participate in the €uro. Micro States such as the Vatican, Andorra and Saint Marino also participate in the €uro. Montenegro also uses the €uro but is not allowed to issue the currency itself.
If you have poor eye sight or even are blind ,it is a HUUUGE advantage that the notes not the same size and texture across the board. And even when if that is not a problem, it is sooo much easier to find the right note to pull out when they all have distinct colours and sizes.
Australian bank notes have the value embossed on them in braille. We came up with the idea for different sizes and colours but found that wasn't enough.
When travelling between France and Italy, you can go by train (9-14 hours) or by plane. It's quite a distance to travel. The continental Europe is the same size as the US or Australia.
truth be told, in the beginning there was an issue with "euro-fit wallets" because the 50 and 100€ bills were bigger than most bills that were in circulation at the time. But the size difference was introduced to aid blind people in identifying banknotes. The stripes on both sides are also tactile for the same reason
It is not the same size so that blind people can hold them apart, there is actually a folding plastic thingy that will tell you how long it is and give you the value, e.g. in braille font, also it might be better for machines to hold them apart.
The ECU existed before the €uro as the European Currency Unit - from 1979-98 as a “Invoice currency” but was replaced by the Euro . Ecu is a medieval currency of France too… Btw, the ECB decided to stop the 500€ - the highest is the 200€ now . Did he mention the little windows in the paper from the 20€~200€ ? Oh, I see , this is the old €uro series… they have already been changed… Never mind- the video is 4 years old…
Canadian money is very similar. Polymer, lots of security features. Has braile for visually impaired. Because theyre all the same size. Different colours, but that wouldn't do any good for the visually impaired. Also if you shine a laser light through the maple leaf on each bill, it will project the denomination of the bill on the wall, as a security feature
I remember before the Euro going on holiday included a daily mathematical challenge of converting to your own national currency. I never minded, but these days comparing prices is much easier and precise.
He forgot to mention the usability for the blind. As for example the value number in the left bottom is thicker so you can feel the note. There are other features as well. Some stars light up under UV and others specifically don't. There are geometric figures printed with half on the front and half on the back. They should line up when held up to the light. Etc.
I know it as a child if you went from Germany to the Netherlands and you have not shopped directly at the border, the German DM had to be exchanged for Dutch guilders, a schoolmate was in Italy on vacation and told his father had had Lire 200,000 after the change of 200 marks we all thought he would have been rich with it in Italy😂 I was 12 when the Euro was introduced, on 1. January 2001 I waited with many others in a long queue to exchange DM 20 for EUR 10.23 and thought the new money was really super interesting. Out of nostalgia I have kept a few DM coins until today. PS: Your beard looks cool! I unfortunately failed to grow a mustache 🙂
Different size notes and more colourful notes are vital for the visually impaired. Whilst in the EU the UK never joined the Euro. However, there are 0 Euro notes with UK landmarks on them!
there also are USamerican 0€ notes !!! google for *_"0€ bills america"_* ... among others, there are "brooklyn bridge", "big apple" and "times square" for New York, monochrome and color notes for Las Vegas, and also "remember 9/11", "golden gate bridge", "Elvis", "military aviation museum", "sergeant michael strank", and probably many more
Yeah, traveling from Ireland to Sweden was a real pain in the butt, I had to have 4 different wallets with me. My traveling route was Dublin - Holyhead - Harwich - Esbjerg - Helsingoer - Helsingborg - Stockholm, and I had to have Euro in Ireland, British Pounds in England, Danish Krona's in Denmark, and Swedish Krona's in Sweden. The Isle of Man - who is not a part of Great Britain and not a member of the EU - also have at least their own coins. You can use British Pounds when you buy things, but the coin change you get back is always in Manx coins and they can not be used in Britain! Cheers / B.
I am old enough to remember that we often had to exchange our money, when we crossed the border for holidays. I the Netherlands we used the Dutch Gulden, or Guilder in English. It was fun to see all these currencies all over Europe, but it sure is more practical to all use the same money.
There are good reasons for different sizes. For example blind people can distinguish between notes based on size. The Euro had a precursor mechanism, the ecu... which was basically keeping currencies stable relative to each other.
Fun facts. When the € was introduced, the countied that didn't change to €, were the only countries to meet the criteria to switch to the €, such as GDP, debt, inflation, etc. Because we in Denmark did not change to €, our economi is much stronger that the €-contries. we even had a period of negative interest rates.
The 500 one was a pain on the ass to use, really impractical, they were also very rare. In Spain we used to call them "Bin Ladens" because we knew they existed, but only a few saw them
8:00 The bills we use the most in Europe are the 5, 10 and 20. Even if you want let’s say 100€, you will often have 5x 20€ bills, which is more flexible for everyday purchase. 50 and 100 bills are more rare and generally for more expensive purchases (or rich people I guess), but a lot of shop don’t like big bill such 100 and won’t accept payment of a small product (like 5-10) with a 100 bill, because if it’s a fake bill, then they not only have a 100 fake bill, but they also paid back 90+ euros with real money. That’s why a lot of shops don’t want to break a 100 or 200 bill. Generally you have them if you want to make an important purchase like say a 5k-10k used car or bike and the person want cash money only because they don’t trust bank notes. But you have to notify your bank first if you want a large amount of cash (anything above 1,500 or 2,000 can’t be obtained in some bank, even if you have the money and you’re ok with large bills). That’s why 5, 10 and 20 are the most used bills and therefore the most “boring” by now :)
I don't see why it would matter whether the shops lose products or money (other than money being more liquid for the con man). AFAIK the real reason for many shops not accepting large denominations is that, besides the increased risk of counterfits, people using them wipe out the change in the till, which then forces the shop to have way more cash at hand and often in larger denominations which they need less. Paying with a 100 instead of a 50 requires additional 50 in the cash register and, if instead of a 20, it means the shop has to fork up additional 80 in change. After that, they have this note of 100, which is basically useless for giving out as change. For a purchase of 15, in the latter case they could theoretically lose up to 17 similar customers' worth of change (though in practice they'd probably just lose 2 to 4+ times the change for customers paying with a 50).
just so you know many other countries' banknotes also feature the eurion star constellation, including the japanese yen, british pounds and the us dollar. though they are more hidden
Since I've seen many people talk about the bills and its design for visual impaired people but not the coins and their features: All the coins are different sizes, just as the notes, but they also all have different edges (is that the right term?) featuring varying patterns, so you can "feel" what coin you are holding.
The different sizes and colours are much more helpful than you might think. It makes it so easy to quickly find the banknote you need, without having to look through a whole bunch of identically looking notes until you find the one with the right number on it. Same goes for the coins. The different sizes already make it very intuitive, because the coins get bigger with increasing value. (Unlike the British pound sterling, where the size of the coins seems completely arbitrary.) Additionally, they are colour coded. The smallest coins below 10 ct are copper, 10 to 50 ct are golden and the 1 € and 2 € couns are bicoloured. Furthermore, the rim of each coin has a certain pattern on it, so even if you can’t see the coins, you still know which coins you’re currently holding in your fingers.
When the euro cash was introduced in 2002, it was fun to look at the coins in our pockets and see which country they came from. Now we usually don't pay attention anymore; I just had a look at the ones in my purse, they come from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Portugal, Ireland and Latvia.
I still remember the old looking Euro banknotes and I remember the introduction of the 500 Euro banknote that was quickly discontinued because gangs etc
Interesting fact, our old money and the Euro's are printed with thermal ink in it, i don't know if that is the standard in the rest of the world.. But its an interesting security measure, if u take a banknote and rub it with some effort on a white piece of paper it heats up and the banknote will leave some coloring on the piece of paper...
Here in Norway, cash are used less and less. I don't even remember the last time I had cash in my wallet. We more or less always use digital solutions, either through the use of bank cards or other forms of electronic solutions.
There's also special editions of 2€ coins depicting historic events etc. a friend of mine collected them at some point and there's some wild and rare stuff around
Those diagonal lines on the edges are also there for blind people. If you run your nail over them you feel/hear the pattern. To make it easy the 5 and 50 notes have the same pattern, 10 and 100 have the same and 20 and 200. The difference between those pairs themselve should be obvious from the size of the note. But it helps blind people feel the difference between 10 and 20 euro note which have a fairly similar size
I remember clearly when going for the first time to Italy and had to pay at least 500 Lira for gelato, that would have cost in my home town 5 Austrian Shillings. We are so happy, that most countries have the EURO and struggle with maths when we go to Switzerland or Cesky. Sometimes when you go to a top touristy spot you can pay with Euro even in countries that don't have the Euro. But you can almost everywhere in Europe pay with your European Bankcard. Being Austrian I like to add that the guy who won the competion for the design of the bank notes was Austrian. We are also well known for or beautiful stamps, and we have also produced the world famous stamps for our neighbour Liechtenstein. Cheers!
it was funny back then for americans. Austria used the "Schilling", England used the "Shilling" - same pronounciation, and Australia was an english colony once (but uses their own kind of dollar)...
fun for a short while or travelling only once to some such country, and we had several different separate wallets to keep our "home money" and some other currencies that were "leftovers" from one year, to be used in the next year. thus after at most 2 or 3 years, it was annoying to have all those different wallets and to have spare money that you couldn't use or needed to pay fees to exchange it back and forth, often having too much of one kind and not enough of another while passing through several countries in transit. And notes from some countries are also much smaller or larger so that you need to get specific "local" wallets for them, or have to fold them a few times to make them fit (i still remember italian notes 50 years ago that needed to be folded at least twice since they were real carpets or tapestries, more than 4+ times larger than our own)
The video didn't mention the border of the coins. They are ALL different (some smooth, some with an indentation, some with knurkling...), so a blind people can recognise them super easily.
We celebrated new years at a local pub. Were paying with dutch guilders before midnight and euros after midnight. (You could exchange at the bar lol*) *This was mostly just for the novelty, there was a transition period where shops etc accepted both old currency and euro
The denominations all being different sizes is important for vision impaired. Because the sizes are all different, they can very easily find out the value of a note
1:37 Most commonly to go to Italy we prefer planes, or cars depending on where you live in France, plane would be common from Paris or anything North of la Loire or in the West. The train is painfully long due to the necessity of crossing the Alps, there are few of them, they're very old and slow so most of them are sleeper trains. Took it a few times as a kid to go to ski camp or music camp in Italy, quite an experience ! Thankfully it was after 2002 so the euro was already there but I was born in 1991 so I used Francs for most of my childhood :) Edit : I would add that coins are often declined in special series for national celebrations and so on, and institution like la Monnaie de Paris can mint special high value coins like 5-10-20-50-100€ in silver with corresponding face value and a cultural theme. I have a 10€ silver coin with Asterix on it, and it can be used in a shop or at the bank like any other coin (although coins like this would likely not be as their collection value is often way above their face value). Those were my two cents... badum tsss
2:35 Correction. Croatia did adopted the €uro back in 1.1.2023. And it's way easier now and much better. Especially since the value of everything in Croatia that's more valuable like real estate and vehicles, was expressed in the €uro for at least last 15 years or more.
The diagonal lines (you can feel them actually) also serve another purpose: They are unique for every set of bank notes (5/50, 10/100 and 20/200) and therefore are also a help for blind people as the sizes between the bank notes is enough not to be confused with each other. And no, the 100€ does not stick out, the 5€ is just small :D
I think that for all intense and purpose there was a European currency a thousand years ago, I believe that a denarius was minted and accepted all across the Roman world from Syria to Britain thus making it a common currency
So here is another little design detail that's barely mentioned, this is in regards to the coins. So each coin is different in size, despite that the€ 0,10 is smaller than €0,05 and same counts for the €0,50 being larger than €1,00 There is still a way for blind people to distinguish them. The texture on the side of the coin. €0,01 is smooth €0,02 has a groove on the side that cuts the coin in half €0,05 is smooth €0,10 continous rough ridges €0,20 a rough ridge every 50° €0,50 continous rough ridges €1,00 continous smooth ridges €2,00 smooth ridges and smooth surface continously transitioning
In the ECB Building Foyer was an exhibition of the different old European currencies, not sure if it is permanent tho, but might be worth a short visit if you are ever in Frankfurt
FYI: Although the UK is no longer in the EU (and always kept our own banknotes), if visiting, it's worth noting certain shops will accept euros. Some of the U.K.'s BIGGER department stores, especially (mainly) the London stores (that are tourist attractions in themselves), will take euros and some other foreign currencies (US dollar, Japanese yen). Selfridges (all branches) and Harrods will both take pound sterling (£), euros, and US dollars at their ordinary cash registers. Selfridges ALSO takes Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, and Japanese yen. Marks and Spencer does NOT take foreign currency at the cash registers but it often has a 'bureaux de change' (literally foreign exchange desks where you can readily change money), in most of its larger stores. Be aware, check 'exchange rates', as you will probably get the best rate in a bank and shops won't take euro coins, notes only! Also, be prepared to take more time buying something, as they have to do exchange rates etc. You will have to pay for your goods using one currency or another (NOT part euro and part pounds). Don't forget that we use pound sterling THROUGHOUT Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and that we have a lot more (different pictures) on banknotes because the countries print their own notes. So, in England & Wales, the notes are printed by the Bank of England; while in Scotland, three banks print notes and three in Northern Ireland (NI). The 'face value' printed on them, is the same throughout the UK (including the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey). The £ is accepted in many British overseas territories, the value being on par with the UK!
Here in Denmark we have our own currency still (Kroner and Øre), but actually in most shops you can pay using Euros as well, maybe with a less good exchange rate. Many Danes actually goes shopping without their wallets, as we have multiple other ways to pay (MobilePay, GooglePay, ApplePay), like our drivers license and health insurance all comes as APPS too. When I sell stuff physical or online I mostly use MobilePay, or PayPal if its buyer from outside Denmark. We have a small RV park at my property, with a lot of German guests. In Germany they just the last years started to use electronic payments more, so still I have to deal with old fashion paper money (Euros) 😀
The main reason for the difference in size is simple : you can't wash a banknote and reprint it with it's security features to a higher denomination (yes, it has happened with former European currencies). So well you can turn a 200 into a 5 but it's stupid, but not a 5 into a 200 which would be quite lucrative.
I once asked an american friend about the dollar bills.
He replied very lanconic: You know, we got a REALLY good deal on green ink.
I once met an american in my country in northern Europe, he had saved money whole childhood so he can come to travel in Europe and he told me that our money looks like a childrens money :D and that American is more serious :D I laughed soo hard :D now that I have visited US myself I would say that I like EUR much more than a $ , dollars look all the same
@@HK-gm8peif you look for the Dutch gulden that’s more like Monopoly money but very difficult to copie a lot of technics used for these billets are used for the euro
The different banknote sizes are an accessibility feature for blind people to be able to tell the difference and the colours are chosen so that people with colour-blindness can still tell them apart. They're very well thought out.
True, bue you needed with the first serie to put them around your middle finger to know their width, and so value (100, 200 and 500 have the same width but come on, they're not ommonly used)
With the second serie, the tactile stripes allows blinf people to recognize a note more easily, the 5-ish (5 and 50) notes have no gap in the stripe, the 1-ish (10 and 100) have 1 gap in the stripe, and the 2-ish (20 and 200 have two). The window/gate shape is also hollowed in paper under the holographic stripe, and can be easily recognised by touching.
Why would they be made in a certain way for colour blindness wouldn't they just look at the value number 🤷
@@saff_cozzie Yes, but not in a pileup or in a wallet. Different sizes and clearly different colors helped for this case.
@@saff_cozzieGives extra security 👍
@@saff_cozzie becourse that is not what they are selected for the colours are selected to make it easier for ppl with limited vision who cannot read the number ^^ though you might aswell use colours that ppl who are colour blind can differentiate as ppl with colourblindness can also become visually em-pared
Fun fact: I think the Netherlands actually build those bridges afterwards over some small rivers etc.. Those cheeky Bastards can now claim "Yea it came all from us". But it was funny when it was revealed.
In Spijkenisse (village in the Netherlands) they build the bridges in small. There are some videos about it on UA-cam
As a fellow European i can say, those pesky dutch!!!
That was just funny what "we" did 😂😂😂🇳🇱
@@stephanos2758I wouldn't say pesky, the Dutch are something special as all other European people, each one in it's own way. That is why I like to be European, diversity!
@@jane2902 alright chill. i was making a joke
The best thing about the notes all being different sizes and clearly contrasting colors is that if you have a bunch of different ones in your wallet, like 5s, 10s, 20s and 50s, it makes it super easy to find the one you need at the moment, you dont have to take out the entire wad and flip through it, you just look in your wallet and grab the ones you need (specially if you're a bit OCD like me and prefer to keep them sorted by value in your wallet :P)
Also, even the 100 and 200 ones aren't THAT big so at least in my experience, they dont really stick out of your wallet like you were concerned about, unless of course you have a really small wallet :P
OCD....me too. The Queen must be facing out and different denominations be in order i.e. lowest to highest! 🤪👍🇬🇧
I know what you mean, I'm also sorting the bills by value... and the reflecting stripes have to be in one direction, so they're all facing the same way... When you need 65€, grab a 50, a 10 and a 5... The sorting makes it easier and faster.
and don’t forget Braille! So that blind people don't get ripped off when shopping, that's why and the different sizes....
and the different coin edges make it easier for blind people to distinguish between them
Yeah, it is very handy as you just open and know where exactly 10, 20 or 50 will be in wallet (and I do like to have "similar" number of each in wallet just because... it looks sooo cool with all sizes (okay, 5 probably is tiny bit too small for my taste... (that is what she said, hehe)
I would say 100 and 200 are definitely too big for a regular guys wallet you keep in your back pocket. I hate them. 50 is the max I'm ok carrying.
The only really boring thing about €Euro notes is not having enough of them.
The bills having different sizes isn't just for accessibility but also for safety. The paper used requires specific manufacturing processes and it's generally impossible to obtain for anyone other than the governments. A counterfeiting trick that is (physically) possible to do with bank notes that are the same size is getting a bunch of small ones, bleaching them and reprinting them with the higher value, thus turning each of your 1 dollars into 100 dollars. Security systems of course will notice, but regular cash using people likely won't.
Euro banknotes and coins are developed in such a way that blind and partially sighted people (red-green blindness too) can handle them with confidence.
Through the 90's, my father was a lorry driver.. "International Duty".. I remember when he was home, he had a bag full of compartiments, all of them from a different country.. All the way from Portugal to Poland and Hungary.
I spent lots of time figuring out a lot about those countries, just by how their coins looked.
There are several more safety features than mentioned like taktile ones to identify fake notes easier in everyday life (like a cashier at rush hour...). The different sizes helps vision impaired people to identify a certain bank note.
In addition to being different lengths, the new Australian banknotes also have braille dots for the vision impaired
Not only that, the lines he shows that links when wrapped around are actually raised up from the paper so that they have a tactile feel like braille and each denomiation has a different pattern... making it very easy to distinguish by touch....
@@martinschalken7583 The Euro bills and coins also have features. Bills: "The Euro banknotes were designed with heavy input from Blind organizations and have a very simple distinguishing feature: big bills are big; little bills are little. The notes have some intaglio printing, which gives them relief marks that can be felt. The €200 and €500 bills have special tactile marks on them as well, for added security and assuredness when dealing with such large amounts."
Having worked as a cashier at a supermarket in my teens when they introduced these, the amount of validation methods on these bills is crazy, honestly props to whoever manages to make proper fake ones that would fool a well trained cashier or machine, for as far as i'm aware that has still not been done. (having said that, there's probably a reason why they made new ones with a few more validation methods, but it's probably just to 'stay on top' of it)
Fake bridges are no longer fake, an artist in the Netherlands (Robin Stam) was like "hey those are cool bridges" so he got approval from a town to make miniature versions over a small river, typical Dutch things hehe.
Sizes vary less then you might think (you don't really notice unless you actually compare them side by side) and the largest bills still fit a normal size wallet. Having said that you can see if somebody has 'big bills' on them just by the color, not by the 'size of their wad' ^^
I need to disepoint you i have seen some bills that can even pas a uv light and a machine soo yeah they are out but they are rare (i'm speaking from belgium)
the 50 euro bill was faked for quite a while, also, the 1 and 2 cents no longer exist.
Fun fact, the first series were designed by the dutch. You could see that also in the design, the gulden(the name off the dutch money) was looking similar to the euro bills. And not everybody liked them( too colourful).
@@euhm The 1 and 2 cents are still around and are legal for payment. A lot of countries have stopped producing them and prices are rounded up or down to the closest 5 ct multiple in a lot of places.
@@KeesBoons You are right, you can still use the 1 and 2 cents, and they are still around, but as far as I know, the production has stopped completely.
I had only seen a counterfeit 50 euro note once. In the 22 years that I have worked as a cashier.
A lot of people have mentioned the different size bills being handy with visually impaired people but there is even better feature to help those in need. The lines on the edges that meet when folded like shown in the video are actually elevated and they are different in every bill. So basically a blind person can feel those elevated lines with their finger to tell which bill you're holding.
I‘m European myself, so guys don’t start telling him, that Australian bank notes are waterproof, fireproof and crumbleproof 😉
And they are absolutely Beautiful ! Also their hologram window is incredible !
Been to OZ. I was astonished by your also (almost) untearable notes 😊 same for NZ
I still have some here.
Love from Germany
I remember the problems and controversy when the Euro was introduced. Older generations still calculare back to the old valuta to determine how much something costs. There is also still a great nostalgia to the old notes. Like our 25 gulden note was called the lighthouse and another note was the sunflower.
Definitely prefer different sized bank notes, never mind the difference that makes for blind users. I may be wrong, but the US seems the only country with notes the same size in my experience.
Ya, travelling in Europe pre-Euro was a pain in the ass. I had to do it a few times while on training trips over there. Post Euro was a breeze, could drive around from Germany to Luxembourg to Belgium, to Holland and have a detour into France on the way back with no problems with money. All Euros are accepted everywhere, just great. Oh, by the way, glad to see you wearing a Wisconsin Badgers hat, LOL, Go Badgers!
I miss that Money changing a litle bit. Because, the left over Money , was always a kind of Souvenir .( I have still some Coins from my Schooltripp to Italy, and some Coins from the GDR (East Germany)
Not only pre-Euro, but also pre-digital it was a drag to go on holiday to Italy. You needed to have German Deutsch Mark bills, Swiss Franc bills and Italian Lire bills. Otherwise you couldn’t get fuel or something to eat or drink on the way. All currency bills were taken back in by Dutch banks, but not the coins. We gave these coins to charity.
Well, no pain in the ass, just something you get used to. For the usual vacation destinations we didn't change back the foreign money. And when a customer of us opened a new branch in (then young) Slovenia, I (Austria) just had two wallets. As easy as that.
No border checks, no money exchange. Such a hassle removed.
Before the Euro, we were used to exchange rates, different currencies, etc. It wasn’t such a big deal for private travelers in my opinion. With Eurocheques it also was fairly easy to get the local currency. To me it was just an added feeling of being outside of Germany.
As a southern German, I knew the exchange rates of Francs, Swiss Franks, Schilling, Lira and Pesetas.
However the Euro was a good step into a common European market.
Now you can spend that time learning other things.
Pre-Euro travel was a pain. Going to the bank and paying a few to “buy” currency. Once ATM machines started working with your card in other countries it wasn’t as bad but it was still hard to adjust for the difference in values. The Euro has made it much simpler.
Being portuguese and occasionally going to Spain for motorbike meetings before the Euro, I never felt the complications associated with having to trade currency when I went to Spain. I had the good fortune that the exchange rate between our Escudos (the former portuguese currency) and the Peseta (the former spanish currency) was almost 1:1 and our neighbours had no problem accepting our currency for payments there. Mind you that those meetings were usually not very far from the border but in any case, we also accepted Pesetas as a form of payment on our side of the border as well. 🙂
fun fact all the bridges are real as a dutch chad artist was like i like these lets make them irl so now we have small bridges to the design of the euro notes so yes they are real now lol
hehe, i would still call this *_"fictional buildings on the notes, and fake real buildings"_* :-)
Such a typical Dutch thing to do lmao, love my country & props to the artist in question (Robin Stam)
They are real in Spijkenisse; ua-cam.com/video/tQy07RuvIKI/v-deo.html
G E K O L O N I S E E R D
Something to note about the Danish Kroner/Crown, is that while it has not been replaced by the Euro, it has still been directly linked with the Euro value of €1 = 7.4 DKK, and if the Euro rises or falls, the DKK stays linked. It makes exchange rates very easy and predictable despite not adopting the currency itself, its value is inherited regardless.
You are correct about the 500 euro note, they are being fased out because they were mainly used by criminals to move large ammounts of money. Most stores dont even accept them. Same with the 200 notes.
Yep, I had a €200 note and it was almost impossible to move it on in France. The €500 notes were indeed well used by criminals, allegedly it is surprising how much money in 500's you can hide in an innocuous 20 cigarette packet. ISTR €25,000 is the number.
@@572Btriode Germany takes them just fine :)
once used 500 euro notes, when I buy ATV... lot of money in small pile.
The 500 notes instantly disappeared from circulation as soon as a new batch was produced. And the few people saw were fresh from the back. Never to be seen again.
The only use was for black market deposits. Drug lords don't need full houses to hide all the cash anymore, a few boxes were enough.
I've heard that some people was being payed 520 for each 500 note they can find....
I would not say mainly, but yes criminals used 500€ notes a lot. Originally they were not intended tp public use at all but mainly for banks to easily transfer money between them.
You are absolutely right, the bigger notes stick out. This is because so a blind person can immediatly figure out just by size, what note he has in his hand.
and the diagonal lines (6:52) at the edges are tactile and double as markers for blind people. 5 / 50 € have no gap, 10 / 100 € have one and 20 / 200 € have two gaps to help them not confuse the similar sized denominations
The original Dutch notes, the Guilder notes were the notes who stood as basic for the money. We had them special for blind people. We also had the colors standing out and we had already very good safety measures.
We had purple, yellow, orange, green, blue and red money, and was appraised around the world. The Euro’s are looking good, but the Dutch were art.
Before the euro traveling in Europe was a hassle.
I live in Oostende, Belgium and in 45 minutes driving north I'm in the Netherlands and about the same going south I'm in France. Before the euro I always had French Francs and Netherland Guldens at home for when I went to France and The Netherlands for a day. The last years before the euro came it was a bit easier to get foreign currency because you could just go to a local ATM and get the countries' currency with a Belgium bank card.
But I remember a time (I was born in 1972) when you actually had to go to the bank or a money exchange place to convert some money. If you went abroad for a few weeks you had to carry traveler's checks because they were in your name and safer than carrying weeks worth of money in your wallet.
We went from Austria through Italy and France to Spain. So you needed 3 foreign currencies on the way. It helps if you have at least a bit of mathematics at your hand. In the end it's just some factors you need to work with on any price. And we still need them e.g. for Scandinavia. One time my mother saw some ham in Norway which she liked. When I told her the price we didn't buy it 🙂.
@@reinhard8053 You don't need them in Sweden at least, you need a bank card. :) More and more stores in Sweden have stopped accepting cash.
@@HenrikJansson78 I don't remember Sweden exactly, but in DK and N I found places where only local cash was possible or Swish(or similar) which is not possible for tourists.
The calculations remain to know what the price really is.
@@reinhard8053 On our last vacation in Sweden and Norway we encountered just two of these occasions. Once a "campground" (under quotation marks... 😉) didn't accept credit cards and offered us to stay without payment but finally accepted a 10 Euro bill. And once we were not able to donate to a church because they only accepted Swish.
Every opponent of the "Digital Euro" here in Austria should once go abroad with open eyes...
Love that you still consider 2002 like "recent" :D
I do the same and then realize it was over 20 years ago
Germany had a 1000 Deutsche Mark notes, worth about 500 Euro. And Switzerland has a 1000 Swiss Franc notes (worth currently about 1000 Euro). At some banks, when you withdraw CHF 1000, you will get such a note. I’ve paid with one in a supermarket and even a bar, though they did check it carefully in the latter.
The Netherlands had a 1000 Gulden note as well. I bit below the value of the German 1000 DM.
The size and the different colors on each note, help the people who have troubles reading, or have a bad eyesight. The blind can rely on the stripes on the short edge as you can feel those.
On the 5 euro notes the ribbing is continuous, on the 10 euro notes the ribbing is interrupted once with a smooth surface and on the 20 euro notes the ribbing is interrupted twice.
The major benefit of having different size and colored bills is that you can simply pull the right bill out of your wallet without ever having to really think much. I simply look at the bills in my wallet (which are ordered based on value and thus size), and pull out the right one. This also prevents you from having to show around how much money you have with you, as you can simply keep it hidden inside of the wallet.
As far as I know the different sizes were partially for convenience (easy to spot the higher denominations) but also to allow blind people to accurately feel which bill they are holding, so they don't have to rely on the kindness of strangers when doing a cash transaction.
Australian notes, upon which these notes are based, has the value embossed in braille on them.
The strips on the edge, that meets perfect with the other side, are made of a thicker ink that you can feel. And the pattern of these is different for each note. So the "feeling feature" is also there.
@@davidbarry994 Yeah, but you can't use Braille in the EU, as there's so many different languages - there are different braille systems for different languages. Braille isn't universal as many people thinks.
@@Bannimann2 also for numbers?
In 1988 Australia was the first to introduce the polymer (plastic) bank note to the world with numerous security measures making it all most impossible counterfeit. The last series has a lot more security features including the $5 note which has a bird in flight viewed when holding the note a special way.
The coins have some interesting features too.
They are arranged in 3 sets the first 2 of 3 each and the last with only 2
1 2 5
10 20 50
€1 €2 (presumably space for €5)
The 1 and 5 in every series are essentially the same other than the 5 being larger
The 2 has a distinctive Tactile feature to help tell it apart
1 and 5 cents have smooth edges
2 has a smooth edge with a groove all the way around
10 and 50 have quite a coarse bumpy edge milling
20 has single concave bumps every so often
€1 has fine knurling with a nickel brass around cupronikel composition
€2 has alternating fine knurling and smooth with a cupronikel around nickel brass
€5 if it ever gets made will be bimetallic the same as €1 (nickel brass outer, cupronikel inner) with continuous knurling
I am from '83, and remember the Euro coming. I found some Guilders, have them laying around the desk, adding 'dubbeltjes' and 'kwartjes' when I find them.
The Dutch Guilder notes were pretty nice (the older series). We had a lighthouse (250), yellow Van Gogh flower (50), Ink blue Frans Hals portret (10)
The size of the banknotes and the patterns on the edges on the coins is there to assist the visually impaired so they don't have to ask for help and can be independent and don't be fooled.
Video didn't mention that coins also have accessibility feature with different edges as accessability feature. Was working with a lot of old people when we introduced Euro and showing them edges of coins, along with growing size of banknotes really made it easier for them to get used to new money.
The euro coins are also great, with logical size/material sequence (three copper coins growing in size for 1-2-5, three brass ones growing in size, two bimetallic ones). And they have clear value IN NUMERALS, not some weird wording like "one dime." (Who knows before visiting the U.S. that this is 10 cents? Also, this coin is much smaller than 5 cents.)
Modern polymer banknotes were first developed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation or CSIRO and first issued as currency in Australia during 1988.
Fun fact: The zeros in the multiple small, yellow numbers dotted around on US bills (except the $1 and $2) are laid out in the same shape as the EURion constellation so that they trigger the same software check as EU bills when anyone tries to copy them.
they clearly said so in the video...
@@reesofraft4166 the video never mentioned US currency. I was pointing out that the feature that IWrocker praised as "next level security" was also present on US notes.
@@RobWVideo Well, more than present, "stolen" :) (I guess they have some sort of agreement)
@@framegrace1 Most countries have EURion donuts on their currency. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation#Usage
There are also Braille dots on the banknotes, but the different sizes are still very helpful to the visually impaired;
Remember how he said that all the bridges are fictional? Well, they were ... a Dutch architect when asked to design bridges for a Dutch city called Spijkenisse designed them to look like the ones on the Euro notes.
Tom Scott made a video of them: ua-cam.com/video/S9E1wsxOSzM/v-deo.html
01:35 There are flight, too, but there is also a common border. You passed through a huge tunnel and needed some other currency. Same for maritimal borders crosses.
Half-Asleep Chris is actually best known for his Lego video's. His production value is through the roof.
There's a ton of animation, editing and other work that goes into them.
I'm surprised the video you saw didn't go into more detail about the coins. For example, some coins have different edges to make it easier for blind people to distinguish coins more quickly than by guessing size.
6:55 Those lines are also tactile, so visually impaired people can feel which banknote is which!
size is important for people with sight difficulties. Australian notes even have braille like dots on them to assist the visually impaired.
Big problem for same size, same colour banknotes is the ease of mistaking the value note being passed in less ideal light or dirt state and especially for people with vision issues. Want to pass a $1 but given size and colour are the same actually paying with a $10 or worse $100, because in the dim light, or as a set of notes handed, or just in hurry hand the wrong value over. Made far more a possibility if vision impaired, even wearing glasses might be enough.
Similar can trick a person receiving a set of notes, example fail to note one or more actual $1 included in place of $10 . Or maybe in hurry or not having correct glasses on. With sizes and colours differing that mistake possibility is very much reduced.
These Euro notes are like the well known Australian notes, plastic, and more durable. Many features are like the Australian notes, plus they have made own security features, made possibly by the Australian developed process of coloured plastic notes.
Also like current Australian notes, I believe the Euro notes now also have varied number of dimples, for easy identifying by touch for vision impaired people, who as mentioned above already benefit from size and colour differences too.
My father worked as a printer at the German federal printing press pre Euro. He mostly printed 10 Deutsche Mark notes and passports. German bank notes had similar security features with the underlying idea to make replicating them with all the security features too expensive for forgers to still make a profit. For the same reason, it takes quite a lot of skill, knowledge and sophisticated machinery to produce them. Any mistake that causes faulty notes is very costly.
Croatia now uses the Euro as of 1st January 2023, so this is slightly out of date. Also, the strips on the sides of the notes aren't just a security feature. They're slightly raised bumps and have different patterns for different denominations, making it easier for blind or partially sighted people to tell them apart.
Paris to Rome by car is about 15-16 hours or you can take the train and enjoy the ride! The colors and different sizes are for the people who have disabilities ex blind people.
The different color and size of euro banknotes for each denomination is a huge help for people who cannot see perfectly. This is the actual reason. Therefore, the color and size have not changed.
I wear glasses, but I can safely pay without them.
2:37 yet? Us Danes don`t plan on ever using Euros. And UK left EU since this video was made.
refering to the ones shown below.
@@Bennime_Once He isn't wrong, even if he isn't right. Or something. :) Sweden have no plans at all to adopt the Euro.
Danexit soon too? :)
Notes :) Different sized & coloured notes (aka "Metric Notes") are so people can easily tell a 5 from a 100.
The wrap-around lines are for a quick check, say at a shop. Aust is losing our 5c soon. Round up!
_Tbh, these are sorta decent-ish Australian style notes, but they have to be a bit bland to not offend anyone._
Thats because Australia developed and patented it. It's Australian innovation and security, when you look at all these notes, in all countries who use it, Australia makes money through the patent.
And we don't walk around with €100 bills because they're not accepted everywhere.
Afaik the main argument for the different sizes is so severely visually impaired or even fully blind people can easily identify the bills by touch. That is also why the coins are different sizes and all have differently shaped ridges and notches on the edges.
And on the notes the diagonal lines on the edges are not just a security feature. They have different patterns, so they are identifiable by touch. 5 and 50, 10 and 100, 20 and 200 have the same "patterns", but in combination with the size of the note it's easy tell which one you have.
As well as the picture print and large denomination numbers on the front, which are printed in a way they can be felt.
Partly true, the etchings on coins originate from countering people shaving of gold and silver from coins before spending them.
The relatively new Swiss bank notes are really interesting as well. Each note has a different theme and look really good.
Just like American Quarters figure the 50 states ( Which I collected when I lived in the states) here in Europe, each country has its personalized country design behind their 2 euro, 1 euro, 50 cents, 20 cents, 10 cents and 1, 2, 5 cents designs (different in each coin). In America is just in the quarters (25 cents) coins. So Irish has a Shamrock, Finland has swams, Italy has the colosseum, Greek has an Owl, Spain has Cervantes, the Netherlands have Erasmus of Rotterdam, etc...
Croatia (my country) uses Euro since 1.1.2023.
Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic still have their own currency.
Ireland, the Baltic states and Greece participate in the €uro.
Micro States such as the Vatican, Andorra and Saint Marino also participate in the €uro.
Montenegro also uses the €uro but is not allowed to issue the currency itself.
If you have poor eye sight or even are blind ,it is a HUUUGE advantage that the notes not the same size and texture across the board. And even when if that is not a problem, it is sooo much easier to find the right note to pull out when they all have distinct colours and sizes.
Australian bank notes have the value embossed on them in braille. We came up with the idea for different sizes and colours but found that wasn't enough.
When travelling between France and Italy, you can go by train (9-14 hours) or by plane. It's quite a distance to travel. The continental Europe is the same size as the US or Australia.
truth be told, in the beginning there was an issue with "euro-fit wallets" because the 50 and 100€ bills were bigger than most bills that were in circulation at the time. But the size difference was introduced to aid blind people in identifying banknotes. The stripes on both sides are also tactile for the same reason
It is not the same size so that blind people can hold them apart, there is actually a folding plastic thingy that will tell you how long it is and give you the value, e.g. in braille font, also it might be better for machines to hold them apart.
The ECU existed before the €uro as the European Currency Unit - from 1979-98 as a “Invoice currency” but was replaced by the Euro .
Ecu is a medieval currency of France too…
Btw, the ECB decided to stop the 500€ - the highest is the 200€ now .
Did he mention the little windows in the paper from the 20€~200€ ?
Oh, I see , this is the old €uro series… they have already been changed…
Never mind- the video is 4 years old…
Canadian money is very similar. Polymer, lots of security features. Has braile for visually impaired. Because theyre all the same size. Different colours, but that wouldn't do any good for the visually impaired. Also if you shine a laser light through the maple leaf on each bill, it will project the denomination of the bill on the wall, as a security feature
I remember before the Euro going on holiday included a daily mathematical challenge of converting to your own national currency. I never minded, but these days comparing prices is much easier and precise.
He forgot to mention the usability for the blind. As for example the value number in the left bottom is thicker so you can feel the note. There are other features as well. Some stars light up under UV and others specifically don't. There are geometric figures printed with half on the front and half on the back. They should line up when held up to the light. Etc.
I know it as a child if you went from Germany to the Netherlands and you have not shopped directly at the border, the German DM had to be exchanged for Dutch guilders, a schoolmate was in Italy on vacation and told his father had had Lire 200,000 after the change of 200 marks we all thought he would have been rich with it in Italy😂 I was 12 when the Euro was introduced, on 1. January 2001 I waited with many others in a long queue to exchange DM 20 for EUR 10.23 and thought the new money was really super interesting. Out of nostalgia I have kept a few DM coins until today.
PS: Your beard looks cool! I unfortunately failed to grow a mustache 🙂
Different size notes and more colourful notes are vital for the visually impaired.
Whilst in the EU the UK never joined the Euro. However, there are 0 Euro notes with UK landmarks on them!
there also are USamerican 0€ notes !!! google for *_"0€ bills america"_* ...
among others, there are "brooklyn bridge", "big apple" and "times square" for New York, monochrome and color notes for Las Vegas, and also "remember 9/11", "golden gate bridge", "Elvis", "military aviation museum", "sergeant michael strank", and probably many more
Yeah, traveling from Ireland to Sweden was a real pain in the butt, I had to have 4 different wallets with me. My traveling route was Dublin - Holyhead - Harwich - Esbjerg - Helsingoer - Helsingborg - Stockholm, and I had to have Euro in Ireland, British Pounds in England, Danish Krona's in Denmark, and Swedish Krona's in Sweden.
The Isle of Man - who is not a part of Great Britain and not a member of the EU - also have at least their own coins. You can use British Pounds when you buy things, but the coin change you get back is always in Manx coins and they can not be used in Britain!
Cheers / B.
The Isle of Man Bank issues notes in £5, £10, £20 and £50 denominations as well, all pegged to Sterling obviously.
I am old enough to remember that we often had to exchange our money, when we crossed the border for holidays. I the Netherlands we used the Dutch Gulden, or Guilder in English. It was fun to see all these currencies all over Europe, but it sure is more practical to all use the same money.
There are good reasons for different sizes. For example blind people can distinguish between notes based on size.
The Euro had a precursor mechanism, the ecu... which was basically keeping currencies stable relative to each other.
Fun facts. When the € was introduced, the countied that didn't change to €, were the only countries to meet the criteria to switch to the €, such as GDP, debt, inflation, etc.
Because we in Denmark did not change to €, our economi is much stronger that the €-contries. we even had a period of negative interest rates.
The 500 one was a pain on the ass to use, really impractical, they were also very rare. In Spain we used to call them "Bin Ladens" because we knew they existed, but only a few saw them
8:00 The bills we use the most in Europe are the 5, 10 and 20. Even if you want let’s say 100€, you will often have 5x 20€ bills, which is more flexible for everyday purchase. 50 and 100 bills are more rare and generally for more expensive purchases (or rich people I guess), but a lot of shop don’t like big bill such 100 and won’t accept payment of a small product (like 5-10) with a 100 bill, because if it’s a fake bill, then they not only have a 100 fake bill, but they also paid back 90+ euros with real money. That’s why a lot of shops don’t want to break a 100 or 200 bill. Generally you have them if you want to make an important purchase like say a 5k-10k used car or bike and the person want cash money only because they don’t trust bank notes. But you have to notify your bank first if you want a large amount of cash (anything above 1,500 or 2,000 can’t be obtained in some bank, even if you have the money and you’re ok with large bills). That’s why 5, 10 and 20 are the most used bills and therefore the most “boring” by now :)
I don't see why it would matter whether the shops lose products or money (other than money being more liquid for the con man). AFAIK the real reason for many shops not accepting large denominations is that, besides the increased risk of counterfits, people using them wipe out the change in the till, which then forces the shop to have way more cash at hand and often in larger denominations which they need less. Paying with a 100 instead of a 50 requires additional 50 in the cash register and, if instead of a 20, it means the shop has to fork up additional 80 in change. After that, they have this note of 100, which is basically useless for giving out as change. For a purchase of 15, in the latter case they could theoretically lose up to 17 similar customers' worth of change (though in practice they'd probably just lose 2 to 4+ times the change for customers paying with a 50).
The €50 ones aren't rare at all, the rarity is the ones over €50
just so you know many other countries' banknotes also feature the eurion star constellation, including the japanese yen, british pounds and the us dollar. though they are more hidden
Since I've seen many people talk about the bills and its design for visual impaired people but not the coins and their features:
All the coins are different sizes, just as the notes, but they also all have different edges (is that the right term?) featuring varying patterns, so you can "feel" what coin you are holding.
He forgot to mention many more features.. Like perfect incremental size for each note.. and many features for blind people
The different sizes and colours are much more helpful than you might think.
It makes it so easy to quickly find the banknote you need, without having to look through a whole bunch of identically looking notes until you find the one with the right number on it.
Same goes for the coins. The different sizes already make it very intuitive, because the coins get bigger with increasing value.
(Unlike the British pound sterling, where the size of the coins seems completely arbitrary.)
Additionally, they are colour coded. The smallest coins below 10 ct are copper, 10 to 50 ct are golden and the 1 € and 2 € couns are bicoloured.
Furthermore, the rim of each coin has a certain pattern on it, so even if you can’t see the coins, you still know which coins you’re currently holding in your fingers.
I loved being in Ireland in holiday and finding Greek and Italian coins and notes in my purse.
When the euro cash was introduced in 2002, it was fun to look at the coins in our pockets and see which country they came from. Now we usually don't pay attention anymore; I just had a look at the ones in my purse, they come from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Portugal, Ireland and Latvia.
I still remember the old looking Euro banknotes and I remember the introduction of the 500 Euro banknote that was quickly discontinued because gangs etc
Interesting fact, our old money and the Euro's are printed with thermal ink in it, i don't know if that is the standard in the rest of the world..
But its an interesting security measure, if u take a banknote and rub it with some effort on a white piece of paper it heats up and the banknote will leave some coloring on the piece of paper...
Here in Norway, cash are used less and less. I don't even remember the last time I had cash in my wallet. We more or less always use digital solutions, either through the use of bank cards or other forms of electronic solutions.
There's also special editions of 2€ coins depicting historic events etc. a friend of mine collected them at some point and there's some wild and rare stuff around
Those diagonal lines on the edges are also there for blind people. If you run your nail over them you feel/hear the pattern. To make it easy the 5 and 50 notes have the same pattern, 10 and 100 have the same and 20 and 200. The difference between those pairs themselve should be obvious from the size of the note. But it helps blind people feel the difference between 10 and 20 euro note which have a fairly similar size
I remember clearly when going for the first time to Italy and had to pay at least 500 Lira for gelato, that would have cost in my home town 5 Austrian Shillings. We are so happy, that most countries have the EURO and struggle with maths when we go to Switzerland or Cesky. Sometimes when you go to a top touristy spot you can pay with Euro even in countries that don't have the Euro. But you can almost everywhere in Europe pay with your European Bankcard. Being Austrian I like to add that the guy who won the competion for the design of the bank notes was Austrian. We are also well known for or beautiful stamps, and we have also produced the world famous stamps for our neighbour Liechtenstein. Cheers!
it was funny back then for americans. Austria used the "Schilling", England used the "Shilling" - same pronounciation, and Australia was an english colony once (but uses their own kind of dollar)...
1:35 it depends, if you are in a hurry you take the plane, if you have time you take the train or drive.
By all the benefits that the united currency offers, I always found it quite charming having those 'strange' foreign notes in your hands 😁
fun for a short while or travelling only once to some such country, and we had several different separate wallets to keep our "home money" and some other currencies that were "leftovers" from one year, to be used in the next year. thus after at most 2 or 3 years, it was annoying to have all those different wallets and to have spare money that you couldn't use or needed to pay fees to exchange it back and forth, often having too much of one kind and not enough of another while passing through several countries in transit.
And notes from some countries are also much smaller or larger so that you need to get specific "local" wallets for them, or have to fold them a few times to make them fit (i still remember italian notes 50 years ago that needed to be folded at least twice since they were real carpets or tapestries, more than 4+ times larger than our own)
The video didn't mention the border of the coins. They are ALL different (some smooth, some with an indentation, some with knurkling...), so a blind people can recognise them super easily.
We celebrated new years at a local pub. Were paying with dutch guilders before midnight and euros after midnight. (You could exchange at the bar lol*)
*This was mostly just for the novelty, there was a transition period where shops etc accepted both old currency and euro
The denominations all being different sizes is important for vision impaired. Because the sizes are all different, they can very easily find out the value of a note
1:37 Most commonly to go to Italy we prefer planes, or cars depending on where you live in France, plane would be common from Paris or anything North of la Loire or in the West. The train is painfully long due to the necessity of crossing the Alps, there are few of them, they're very old and slow so most of them are sleeper trains. Took it a few times as a kid to go to ski camp or music camp in Italy, quite an experience ! Thankfully it was after 2002 so the euro was already there but I was born in 1991 so I used Francs for most of my childhood :)
Edit : I would add that coins are often declined in special series for national celebrations and so on, and institution like la Monnaie de Paris can mint special high value coins like 5-10-20-50-100€ in silver with corresponding face value and a cultural theme. I have a 10€ silver coin with Asterix on it, and it can be used in a shop or at the bank like any other coin (although coins like this would likely not be as their collection value is often way above their face value). Those were my two cents... badum tsss
2:35 Correction. Croatia did adopted the €uro back in 1.1.2023. And it's way easier now and much better. Especially since the value of everything in Croatia that's more valuable like real estate and vehicles, was expressed in the €uro for at least last 15 years or more.
The diagonal lines (you can feel them actually) also serve another purpose: They are unique for every set of bank notes (5/50, 10/100 and 20/200) and therefore are also a help for blind people as the sizes between the bank notes is enough not to be confused with each other.
And no, the 100€ does not stick out, the 5€ is just small :D
I think that for all intense and purpose there was a European currency a thousand years ago, I believe that a denarius was minted and accepted all across the Roman world from Syria to Britain thus making it a common currency
So here is another little design detail that's barely mentioned, this is in regards to the coins.
So each coin is different in size, despite that the€ 0,10 is smaller than €0,05 and same counts for the €0,50 being larger than €1,00 There is still a way for blind people to distinguish them. The texture on the side of the coin.
€0,01 is smooth
€0,02 has a groove on the side that cuts the coin in half
€0,05 is smooth
€0,10 continous rough ridges
€0,20 a rough ridge every 50°
€0,50 continous rough ridges
€1,00 continous smooth ridges
€2,00 smooth ridges and smooth surface continously transitioning
That documentary is missing 200€ and 500€ bank notes from the first initial series. 500€ was withdrawn in the second series, though.
In the ECB Building Foyer was an exhibition of the different old European currencies, not sure if it is permanent tho, but might be worth a short visit if you are ever in Frankfurt
FYI: Although the UK is no longer in the EU (and always kept our own banknotes), if visiting, it's worth noting certain shops will accept euros. Some of the U.K.'s BIGGER department stores, especially (mainly) the London stores (that are tourist attractions in themselves), will take euros and some other foreign currencies (US dollar, Japanese yen). Selfridges (all branches) and Harrods will both take pound sterling (£), euros, and US dollars at their ordinary cash registers. Selfridges ALSO takes Canadian dollars, Swiss francs, and Japanese yen. Marks and Spencer does NOT take foreign currency at the cash registers but it often has a 'bureaux de change' (literally foreign exchange desks where you can readily change money), in most of its larger stores. Be aware, check 'exchange rates', as you will probably get the best rate in a bank and shops won't take euro coins, notes only! Also, be prepared to take more time buying something, as they have to do exchange rates etc. You will have to pay for your goods using one currency or another (NOT part euro and part pounds). Don't forget that we use pound sterling THROUGHOUT Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and that we have a lot more (different pictures) on banknotes because the countries print their own notes. So, in England & Wales, the notes are printed by the Bank of England; while in Scotland, three banks print notes and three in Northern Ireland (NI). The 'face value' printed on them, is the same throughout the UK (including the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey). The £ is accepted in many British overseas territories, the value being on par with the UK!
Here in Denmark we have our own currency still (Kroner and Øre), but actually in most shops you can pay using Euros as well, maybe with a less good exchange rate.
Many Danes actually goes shopping without their wallets, as we have multiple other ways to pay (MobilePay, GooglePay, ApplePay), like our drivers license and health insurance all comes as APPS too. When I sell stuff physical or online I mostly use MobilePay, or PayPal if its buyer from outside Denmark. We have a small RV park at my property, with a lot of German guests. In Germany they just the last years started to use electronic payments more, so still I have to deal with old fashion paper money (Euros) 😀
The main reason for the difference in size is simple : you can't wash a banknote and reprint it with it's security features to a higher denomination (yes, it has happened with former European currencies). So well you can turn a 200 into a 5 but it's stupid, but not a 5 into a 200 which would be quite lucrative.