EURO NOTES

Only the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Central Banks of the euro area are allowed to issue euro banknotes. In practice, only the national central banks can issue euro notes and coins and remove these from circulation.

The production of notes in euros started with the calculation made by the National Central Banks (NCBs) and the ECB of the number of notes required each year to replace unfit banknotes, envisaged demand and unforeseen demand.

Since 1 January 2002, there have been seven denominations of legal tender notes in the euro zone: €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200 and €500.

The design of the notes reflects architectural styles representing the seven periods of European cultural history, and they are identical for all the countries that have adopted the euro as a single currency.

The Europa series of euro banknotes entered circulation in 2013 with a new design and security improvements with the issue of the €5 note, and the series continued in 2014 and 2015 with the issue of the €10 and €20 notes respectively; subsequently, the new €50 note entered circulation on 4 April 2017.

Damaged and defective banknotes

With normal use, notes wear thin and get dirty even though the paper on which they are printed is very resistant (100% cotton). It also happens that the notes lose part of their surface or some of their elements because of tears, humidity, fire, etc.

Even though the National Central Banks renew the notes on a regular basis in order to maintain their quality, anybody who has a note in bad condition can present this note at any banking institution in the country, and it will subsequently hand it over to the AFA.

In this regard, the AFA hands in all deteriorated authentic euro notes that it has received to a central bank that is a part of the Eurosystem so that this central bank can analyse the notes and decide whether these deteriorated authentic euro notes are exchangeable or not.