The euro is the most significant achievement of European monetary reform since the Roman Empire. The euro not only makes the European single market more perfect, but also facilitates the free trade among the countries in the euro zone, which is an important part of the EU integration process.
Although Monaco, San Marino and Vatican are not EU countries, they used to use French francs or Italian lira as their currencies, and they also used euros, and authorized to mint a small number of their own euro coins. Some non-EU countries and regions, such as Montenegro, Kosovo and Andorra, also use the euro as a payment tool. ?
The euro is managed by european system of central banks, which is composed of the European Central Bank and the central banks of the euro zone countries. The European Central Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, has the power to independently formulate monetary policy. The central banks of euro zone countries participate in the printing, casting and distribution of euro banknotes and coins, and are responsible for the operation of the euro zone payment system.
Extended data:
Since the founding of the new euro, its banknotes have seven denominations, namely? 5,? 10,? 20,? 50,? 100,? 200 and? 500。 The first set of euro notes was issued from June 65438+1 October 1 day to May 201day, 2002, and was subsequently replaced by Europa notes on May 2, 20 13. Unlike coins, the design of paper money is the same throughout the euro zone.
In order to make paper money more durable and easier for people to identify by touch, the paper used for printing paper money is made of pure cotton fiber. The minimum size of euro notes is 120mm x 62 mm, and the maximum size is160mm x 82mm. ; Different banknotes are distinguished by different theme tones.
The European Central Bank released a new version of 65,438+00 euros paper money sample on 2065,438+04,65,438+03, and the new version of 65,438+00 euros was listed and circulated on 23 September 2065,438+04. The new version10 is printed with the portrait watermark of the mythical figure Europa as a security mark. This portrait is taken from an antique vase with a history of more than two thousand years in southern Italy. In addition to the portrait of Europa, the new banknotes have other anti-counterfeiting marks.
The face value figures printed on the front of the paper money will change from emerald to dark blue when viewed from the side, and the edges of the paper money are provided with raised ripples, which are printed with special materials and are slightly thicker than other parts.
In fact, after the European Central Bank (ECB) issued a new version of Euro 5 banknotes in 20 13, one of the purposes of launching the new version of Euro 10 is to improve the service life of banknotes, facilitate people to withdraw or pay at ATMs and vending machines, and avoid the situation that banknotes cannot be recognized by old machines.
All euro notes bear the signature of the President of the European Central Bank. Therefore, when the new president of the European Central Bank took office, the signature on the euro paper money also changed. So far, the euro notes have the signatures of three different presidents. In order to prevent counterfeit money, the EU plans to introduce a new set of banknotes every seven or eight years.
The second set of banknotes was originally planned to be launched on 20 10, but it was postponed to May 2, 20 13. It is expected that in the next few years, a new set of banknotes will gradually replace the old one.
State administration of foreign exchange-central parity of RMB exchange rate
Baidu Encyclopedia-Europe