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
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 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)
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 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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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. 🙂
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.
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.
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
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.
well blind people can't drive. so if you build your country in such a way that you have to drive to get anywhere, people who can't drive are unable to get anywhere. so if a blind person can't get to a shop you also don't have to take in mind how they will pay. /s
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.
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...
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.
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 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.)
Chris's video is a bit outdated; the Euro zone has grown in the meantime, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia use the Euro today. Next up will be Bulgaria, adopting the Euro on January 1st, 2024. And if you want to see real 500 € banknotes, I made a short clip on them: ru-vid.comjET_z2lvgGk?si=Pb4jqI0sdE2Sned1
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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 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…
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.
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 🙂
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
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'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.
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.
We still don't use euros in Denmark. A referendum was necessary because the Ministry of Justice assessed that participation in the common currency would entail a relinquishment of sovereignty for Denmark. On 28 September 2000, a majority of Danes voted no to lift the reservation and introduce the euro in Denmark. 53.2 % of the Danes voted no and 46.8 % yes
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 part about “economic criteria” isn’t really accurate. some EU countries just don’t wanna use Euro and probably never will and there are many reasons for that
Yes and no. The video should've said 'Some countries are not joining the €uro zone for political reasons yet while some countries await to fulfil the economic criteria to join. A good example is Sweden - their currency is now almost an 'internal currency' since the external exchange rate with €uro is so bad. Good news for Finnish shoppers but very bad news for Sweden in the long run. I wouldn't be surprised if Sweden would join immediately after they get a good exchange rate for Krona. Sweden is a good example in other senses as well - using the Krona gave Sweden one more tool for their economic toolbox - but as Krona is devaluing more and more, I believe there will be a political tipping point. After Sweden joins in the next 5 years, the much smaller economy of Denmark has little choice but to follow if they want to keep industry in their country.
@@toms5996 A weaker Swedish Krona is negative for Swedes abroad and for imports, but positive for exports. Sweden is an export-oriented economy and can't survive without its many exports, for many years, the central bank has willfully devalued SEK to increase attractiveness in investments and exports in Sweden. A strong economy in a safe environment and stable government (government debt is next to nothing), but with a weaker currency.
Some countries are waiting to be included into the euro and they are waiting to comply with the economic criteria. I guess Those are the countries the video is talking about. Countries that don't want to join, obviously, are not part of that.
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.
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 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.
So mate, Australia was the first country to make plastic bank notes, and most plastic notes of other countries are supplied by Australia. So the UK notes are an idea copied from Australia. 🇦🇺🦘
1:30: "did people flight from France to Italy? Thought you guys took trains" Well, it depends where from and where to, within the borders, since we share one. You can do the trip by foot, or swimming, or skying, or by bike, by car, by boat, by train and by plane. Even by riding an Elephant, but that would put you in such a bad mood you'd end up ransack Roma and then Italian would be in a mood too. Last guy who tried got his civilization annihilated for that. Would not recommend. Planes are great. If you look at a simple map or a globe map, the two countries appear next to each other, although they share quite a small border. Yet, it's even smaller than what it seems. The land border we share is mostly very high mountains, the Alps chain, which is vey high and very stip. Thus only the coast is a "convenient" passage on land. (btw it's the famous beautiful "Riviera" coast, although nobody in neither France nor Italy call this coast anything like that, since it, shockingly, sort of means "river", and calling a coast a "river" sound very dumb, or worse, English. To any Rosbeef in the comment section: love you guys). This coast is PACKED. In many places their isn't even any flat land between the mountains and the sea. There is a lot of cities, villages. And, of course, a long highway, and a train line. But since it has to follow the coast where the best land is taken by cities, the trip on land is a mess, and take quite more time than just the distance would make you believe. It's a nice trip, many awesome places to stop by and enjoy. If you have the time, and are comfortable with packed places and the mix of highly populated area PLUS massive tourism, highly recommend. If you don't like those: still worth the trip once in a lifetime. But I can say that of almost any European place sooo.... In the mountains, there are some valleys "connected" to each other on both side by step roads or tunnels. The most famous being under the "Mont Blanc" (FR) / "Monte Bianco" (IT) for cars and trucks (longest tunnel of the world when it was finished in 1965). But since you still have to follow valleys, and go quite high (1.2 km altitude), it's not a fast trip. Italy in itself is a difficult country to travel through. One more time, just looking at a map, it seems fine, kind of elongated but it's not Chile, right? Well, it's actually a bit like Chile: moutains & coast strongly defines it. So yeah, planes are great too. You sure CAN take a train from Paris to Roma. Many trains do the trip daily. But so do planes.
Want to say that we Europeans still drive cars and fly airplanes a lot. I think a flight from Paris to Rome is a very realistic option, it is probably cheaper as well as faster than the train might be (outside of vacation periods).
And SNCF the French train company is not very reliable to use! Trains are very often late, workers pretty often in strikes. So plane is better! But the road trip is nice!
@@yeplebloop Yes and connections between different European countries are also not always that reliable, still think it's a pretty good option. I am planning a month-long train trip through central and Eastern Europe as it spares me having to park my car in big cities and it's also better for the environment.
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.
To be fair the Euro is boring, we still have our own Crowns in Czechia and the artwork on those... With latin and all sorts of historical references... They just feel more important, idk.
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.
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
As a child in Denmark, you learned to convert currency very quickly. How many cheap liquorices could you get for your Danish pocket money in Germany in d-mark.
if you think the Euro notes are impressive, take a look at the Swiss Fancs' notes; the *smallest* bill is a 10-Francs bill (equals to $11 USD) ... the coins go up in value all the way to 5 Francs!!! and get this, the largest note is a *1,000-Franc* note, and YES, they are in circulation and regular people carry them too.
Yeah, well, each country had their own currency, because they were, you know, separate countries. I suppose you'd need to change to go to Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama as well (though with the US dollar it's a bit special because that one is accepted in many places). Even today, Europe is still half "sepearate countries" and half "kind of united (confederated?)". Probably in 1-2 generations EU will be really seen as "one big country (entity)" in same way as the US are seen, but we aren't there yet. Kind of an amazing feeling to live through history being written. I remember in the 80s, 90s, there was a TV show "EWG" , short for "Einer Wird Gewinnen" ("one will be the winner") but also the abbreviation for "Europäische WirtschaftsGemeinschaft" (EU's pre-pre-predecessor or something), where diplomats from the then EWG member countries were competing against each other (answering questions).
This reminds me of something weird. My mom went shopping for my grandpa and he gave her a 50€ note (I think, might have been even 100€, old people and their money, lol) and when she tried to pay his groceries with it, they ran it through the detector and it didn't accept it. Well, there was a bank literally 100 meters away so she went there to check it out if it was fake or not and the bank declared it 100% real. So she went back to the shop but they still wouldn't let her pay with it because THEIR machine didn't accept it. I don't remember what happened to the note afterwards.
0:43 What Jeez? You've got the US dollar, Canada's got the Canadian dollar, Mexico's got the peso and so on to the Chilean peso. They're called the same everywhere. That's Jeez!
I much prefered £ sterling Farthing, ha'penny, thrupenny bit, sixpenny bit, shilling, two bob, half crown, ten bob note, pound note and a guinea if your rich or at an auction. =240 pennies to a pound. Now thats REAL currency confusion What could be simpler ?
Around the zero Euro bills there exists an old german joke to bully the Americans: For what do the German's need the zero Euro bill? To pay the Doctor's bill... 😇 Greetz from Germany 😉 I like your Videos
Why "need to be fixed"? It's like saying mexico, peru, canada or japan should have their own money. Country in Europe are COUNTRIES, not states. The choice to used a common currency is that, a choice, but it is not "a fix".
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) 😀
a lot of countries here are big on digital money. We can pay almost anything with our phone. I barely use banknotes in daily life anymore, maybe once a month. (I only keep a few hundred at home for emergencies and maybe 1 fifty in my car so I can buy petrol (gas as you call it) to get home in case my bank card doesn't work (europeans don't usually have a whole bunch of different cards on them) Basically I could never use cash money again if I want, but i think it is charming to keep some. Oh and 100,200 and 500 notes were almost never used, except by tourists or car dealers. Most ATM machines only give 10,20 and 50s.. so even if you pick up 1000, you would get 20 x 50 bills. when I bought my 2nd hand car which was around €6500, the private seller wanted cash, so I took a big bunch of 50 notes and felt like a drug dealer for a few hours :D but that is already kinda weird, almost everybody would just used a online bank transactions for such a purchase.
Eh, I was born in the 1970s and remember Germany's Deutsche Mark well. Exchanging currencies during vacations in other European countries or the UK was less of a "nightmare" as the video makes it sound. It was fun looking at all the different coins and bank notes and collecting them, keeping a few smaller coins from different countries as a keepsake. But yes, the Euro notes are known to be the most secure bank notes in the world, with anti-forgery features from special paper to watermarks, holograms, layers of micro-printing to metal threads woven into the material. The Dollar note is a joke in comparison.
The D-Mark notes were much nicer, you could see parts of our history on them, famous people, the coins were also nicer and the silver coins kept the bacteria away, which is probably why they were replaced with inferior bacteria-spreading ones. I want my D-Mark back. "Wer Banknoten nachmacht oder verfälscht, oder nachgemachte oder verfälschte sich verschafft und in Verkehr bringt, wird mit Freiheitsstrafe nicht unter zwei Jahren bestraft""
@@nobbynobbynoob It would be good, but I don't think so because Germany wants to profit from the gigantic amounts of gas under Palestine, that's why they are sending German soldiers to Israel and Israel therefore wants to get rid of the residents and the reason why the Arab states don't want to take in a single Palestinian is because they are using their own gas reserves They want to continue to profit, so they don't want to have a competitor Israel, so they would rather allow the Palestinians to be bombed and act as if they, e.g. Jordan, were completely innocent if they didn't take in the people. The Arab states had enough money to provide for the Palestinians but Germany will collapse if more Africans or Afghans come. You see, the connections are complex and a human life counts for nothing, it's about oil and gas. Palestine is rich in these resources, but no one knows because Israel cannot allow the Palestinians to be rich and that's what the media reports Palestine is simply a dead desert, so to speak, but this piece of land contains one of the largest gas reserves worth trillions. We are ruled by pigs...
Being able to travel more easily was the smallest aspect. The problems became apparent toward the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s. The Americans declared the Bretton Woods system invalid and began printing dollars for the Vietnam War. The dollar lost value. Europeans traded with each other in dollars. In order to maintain their prices, they had to buy the newly printed dollars from the market and thus cover the USA's war costs. As a countermeasure, the Europeans created a system of fixed exchange rates between European currencies (EMS). The participants had to keep their currency stable within certain limits. Since most of the Europeans' trade is with each other, they were no longer at the mercy of the USA. But it wasn't perfect. When Reagan modernized the US armed forces with debt in the 80s, the Europeans had to pay for it too. Stock market speculators remained another problem. They were able to take advantage of the states' obligation to keep the currency stable and thus make profits at the expense of the taxpayers of an individual state. That's why the euro was finally introduced to be safe from US debt and speculators. If the USA now throws newly printed money onto the currency market, that will initially be a problem for China and Japan. The Europeans can sit back for now. Other countries now have to pay most of the US debt. Since then, the USA has been demanding that the Europeans become more involved militarily. That's understandable, as they no longer cover part of the costs. But what does it mean for the relationship between the USA and Europe if the former colonial powers rebuild their military, with Germany as reinforcement? How far will we then follow the US lead?
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.
Traveling before Euro was awful. Travelers cheques, trying to find a exchange that doesn't scam you with fees and rates, carrying dollars with you as a backup... It was just awful.
12:50 well, the problem with having bills of the same size, you can easily mix some bills and let’s say have a $100 in the middle of some $1 bills and then you want to pay quickly, you don’t pay attention and you don’t pay with the right bills, which also could be an issue for blind people. When you have bills of different size, you can easily organize them in your wallet/pocket from smallest to biggest and then immediately know where your 5€ is and where your 20€ or 50€ is. It’s easier if you stack them, you will see that behind the 5€ bills, you have a bigger denomination under it. Also, contrary to American that often carry bills with a cash clip, Europeans often carry bills in their wallet. So having different size of bills isn’t an issue. Pretty much nobody that I know in Europe carry bills in the pocket like Americans do with clips/bill holder. That’s something that surprised me when I lived in Texas. That’s also why Wallet in Europe have a place for bills ,while a lot of wallet in the US only have credit cards space.
