Euro

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Euro banknotes

Euro is the currency (money) of the countries in Eurozone. It was created in 1999, but until January 1 2002 it was used only for electronic transactions. In 2002, 12 countries of Europe belonging to EU (The European Union) got rid of their old currencies completely, and began to use only Euro notes and coins. There was a transition period when both the old national money and the euro was accepted, but by February 28 2002, all 12 countries were using just euros.

There are 7 kinds of banknotes: each one has a predominant colour and a typical size: € 5 (grey), € 10 (red), € 20 (blue], € 50 (orange), € 100 (green), € 200 (yellow), € 500 (purple). On every banknote, there is a picture of a different European building style.

All bank notes are common in the whole euro zone, there are no national variations.

One Euro can be divided into 100 Euro cent. Coins are of 8 different values: € 0,01, € 0,02, € 0,05, € 0,10, € 0,20, € 0,50, € 1, € 2.

One side of each coin is common in all euro countries. The other side is different in each country. Currently there are 12 different sets of coins. All the coins may be used everywhere throughout the Eurozone.

It is predicted that the 10 new European countries that entered the EU in May 2004 will also adopt the euro as a national currency, after a period of economic stabilization. Slovenia will introduce the notes and coins in 2007.