 Can you name three things that appear on a euro banknote without looking? Do you remember what color a ten euro note is, or a five, or even a fifty for that matter? If you live in a country using the euro, you carry these notes around with you every day. But how much do you actually know about the paper money in your pocket? Well that's what today's episode is all about. Everything you ever needed to know about euro banknotes. The euro is the only way you can truly hold Europe in your hands. It's the most tangible symbol of European integration, and this year we're celebrating 20 years since the launch of euro cash. What started with 12 countries has now become the currency for more than 340 million people across 19 member states. Now before we get going, I do have a small request. Make sure you have a euro banknote handy so that you can see and feel what we're talking about. You're listening to the ECB podcast, bringing you insights into the world of economics and central banking. My name is Katie Ranger. I'm joined today by Martin Mund, who works as a counterfeit expert in our banknotes department. Martin, great to see you today and welcome to the podcast. My pleasure being with you. Now Martin, you are so passionate about banknotes and coins, and what we know each other, we've worked together in the past. Most of that has been me bombarding you with questions about banknotes and coins for my work as a content creator for our social media channels. But it often went way beyond those work questions because you shared your anecdotes and stories about banknotes and coins. And I have to say I really challenge our listeners not to want to become huge fans themselves by the end of this episode because your passion really is inspiring. And that's actually what I'd like to start with, your passion. Where does it come from? Have you always been interested in banknotes and coins? Well, my passion for banknotes is a life long thing. I started looking at banknotes when I was a boy really in primary school age and it was not for their value. It was not because I could use a banknote to buy toys or sweets. It was because I found them so beautiful. And whenever we went on holidays, and remember this is the time before the Euro and you still had to exchange your D-marks against chillings, French francs or Italian lira. The first thing when my father came home from the bank with that exchanged foreign money was Daddy show me those banknotes. And they were colourful, they were different, they were exotic. They really made a part of the holiday experience for me. Okay, so then you're really lucky to have managed to find a job where you can use your passion every day essentially. And you arguably have one of the coolest job titles going, counterfeit expert. What exactly does that involve? Well, I can only confirm it. It's the job of my dreams. I could never have expected to really make that a reality, but I was the lucky one who really became a counterfeit expert. A rare job indeed. So what does the job involve? It's looking at samples of counterfeits that are found all around Europe and analysing them, finding out what the counterfeiters did, which of the security features they imitated, how did they do it. And as a very important support to law enforcement, it is about finding out which counterfeits belong together. So it's all about staying one step ahead of the counterfeiters and making sure that banknotes in our pockets are safe to use, right? That is one other effect of my work. So of course, we do talk to our colleagues who do research and development for the next banknotes that we are going to issue in order to learn from what the counterfeiters do, what they try, what techniques they have available to imitate the genuine note. And then that goes into a feedback to the developers of new security features. And when they have an idea about this could be something to feature on the next series of banknotes, they ask us and say, what do you think? What would the counterfeiters make of this if it became a feature on a new note? And we do evaluate that with our experience that we have gathered from analysing the existing counterfeits. Now it is worth mentioning at this point that our work here at the ECB focuses on banknotes, not coins. Although we are legally entitled to issue Euro banknotes, it is the national central banks of the Eurozone that physically issue them. As I mentioned before, we are celebrating 20 years of the Euro in our pockets this year. Now this was a major event, not just in European but also in global history. It was the biggest cash changeover that has ever taken place in the world. 15 billion banknotes needed to be distributed across Europe, and the police and even the military were brought in to keep everything secure. But of course the work started long before that. Coins started to be minted four years before the changeover, so before the 1st of January 2002, while the banknotes started being produced three years before. And that was all to make sure that there was enough to go around by changeover day, on 1st of January. Now just to get your head around how much this was, if you placed all of those banknotes end to end, they would have reached the moon and back two and a half times. Now Martin, on changeover day you were working as a counterfeit expert at the ECB, so you were really at the heart of it all. What was your most striking memory from that day? Well I had started working for the ECB in 2001, so in the hot phase in the run-up to E-Day as we called it, the launch day 1st of January 2002, as you mentioned. And on New Year's Eve, end of 2001, we had a celebration at the European Central Bank, with a nice dinner, with a speech by the President, Mr. Doisenberg at the time. And we were all very excited about now the Euro really becoming a reality, something in our pockets and in our hands. It was something you've been working for so long and finally this was the moment. Absolutely. And as some might remember, there were starter kits or starter packs available before. So in commercial banks and post offices, you could buy a little bag, a little sachet of Euro coins, but Euro banknotes were not out until really the E-Day. So by the celebrations going on in the evening of 31st of December, people started to queue outside at the banks at the ATMs, the cash machines to get their first Euros out at midnight sharp. And we were very privileged being participants of that party at the ECB. Because even if the ECB does not run an own cash service or counters, there was a special desk setup where the prepared starter sets were sold for 100 D-marks and they did include banknotes, not only coins. So that was 51 Euros and 13 cents and I was proud to buy one like two hours before midnight. So I had my first real own Euro banknotes a little bit before everybody out there in the streets. Wonderful. And guess what? That little sealed plastic bag, I still possess it, I never opened it and it's a cherished souvenir of that historical moment in my life, in all our lives. So my first Euros have survived like in a time capsule. Let's turn to look at the banknotes themselves. So dear listeners, now is the time to grab that banknote I asked you to have handy. Now Martin, you've got a banknote, I've also got a banknote here. And first I want to talk about the design elements, so really the look of the banknote. Let's look at this banknote. You see on a Euro banknote that there are two main features. On the one side you can see windows and doorways and these symbolise the European spirit of openness and cooperation. Now if you turn the note over, you'll see a bridge and that represents communication amongst Europeans and also with the rest of the world. Martin, I'm seeing a lot of things on this banknote in front of me. What other design features are on them and why do they matter? Some others of the common design features that you have on all the denominations would be the map of Europe. Ah yes. It would be the signature of the President of the European Central Bank. Underneath the flag, yeah. Underneath the flag indeed. And on the current series, which we call the Europa series, we do have the portrait of Princess Europa, who gave her name to our continent. She is a mythological figure from Greek mythology. Indeed, not many people know that the second series is called the Europa series, as you'd mentioned. But why did we decide to have a face on the banknote? A criticism that we received for the first banknote series was why is there no portraits? Why is there no heads on it? Because portraits are a well established design feature on many, many currencies and on almost all of the pre-Euro currencies we did have faces. Then again, a currency that had to be neutral enough to fairly serve 12 and now 19 countries, which portraits would you have chosen without having some unwanted national bias? It's tricky as hell. So we had to go for a very neutral topic for the banknotes and that was the gates and the bridges. In the second series, we listened of course to what the public had told us about how they liked or disliked our notes. And then we said, if people really want a portrait on it, then Princess Europa, again, who gave her name to our continent is probably the one single figure, even if a mythological figure she is, that is an agreeable compromise to have a portrait on our notes. And you also mentioned the signature. Now on the banknote I've got in front of me, I have President Draghi's signature but of course President Lagarde has also provided her signature for our banknotes shortly after she joined in 2019 and it is worth saying that banknotes with signatures of the former presidents as well as President Lagarde are of course all legal tender equally. Now Martin, I'm lucky enough to be able to see what our banknotes look like and distinguishing between the different denominations is obviously very important when you're handling banknotes. But something I've always wondered is how people who are blind and partially sighted are able to handle banknotes. What special features help with that? One of the features that we have to distinguish between the different denominations is the changing size. So the banknotes from the 5 euro up to the 200 euro, they are different in size and that helps the blind and the partially sighted to distinguish between them. So they start small and they get larger as they go up? They start small indeed, yes. So up to the 50 they get both wider and higher. The 50, 100 and 200 have the same height but they are getting longer still up to the highest denomination and that is one of the features that will help the blind or the partially sighted. Now talking about the partially sighted, if you look at the range of euro banknotes you will notice that between the different denominations we do have very strong contrasts in color. Somebody who still has some residual vision can certainly distinguish between notes by the different colors and also our value numerals are very big to help the partially sighted tell apart a 20 from a 50 for instance. There are a lot of other things that appear on our banknotes and you've now mentioned a few of them but some of them serve a particularly important purpose. They're what we call security features and they're there to make sure you can tell real banknotes from fake ones. Seeing as this really is the bread and butter of your job Martin can you explain how we can tell if a banknote is real or fake? It's actually very easy. First of all we are providing that formula of feel, look and tilt and that's literally everything you have to do plus learning what I sometimes call the two lessons of counterfeit detection. Lesson one being you have to know the genuine to recognize the counterfeit. Now that's as logical as it can get and lesson two will be check more than one security feature, one is not enough. So with those two lessons and with the formula feel, look and tilt you're well prepared to verify the authenticity of any euro banknote that you will receive and by the way of any banknote in the world beyond the euro. So let's start with feel shall we? Banknote paper isn't just an ordinary paper it has a particular grip and a particular sound. So if you take a banknote in your hands and you move it between your fingers you will notice that this doesn't sound like any ordinary office paper. It's quite crispy isn't it? It's crisp, it's strong, it has a certain texture and that sound, the sexy sound of money I sometimes tend to call it, is very special to banknotes. There is more to feel, if you look along the margins on the left and right hand side of your note, you will see a series of diagonal lines. Ah yes, these kind of black lines. Right, depending on the denomination, they go with the color of the denomination, but strike your fingernail across those lines and you will notice that they have a profile, a relief. You can even hear it. So it's something to feel and we already mentioned what features we have to help the blind or the partially sighted. This is another one because that can help them distinguish between the notes and verifying that what they get is a banknote at all. By using the lines on the left and the right. By using the lines by striking the fingers over the lines and of course blind persons have an extreme sensitivity to tactile features. They can much better distinguish that than a person who relies on the eyes. So we've done the feel. Let's look at the look. Right, the look. There's a lot to look at on banknotes, besides the fact that they are beautiful. I think I mentioned that. It's the colors. It's strong, clear, contrasting colors. If something looks blurred, if something looks dirty in the color, then this might be an indication that there's something wrong with that note that you might be looking at account of it. The genuine notes have a very clear and crisp image. Then you have features that you can see when you hold the banknote up to the light against a lamp or against a window. So now we're looking at the white part. Am I right? You can look at the white part at the left side of the note. There you would see the watermark and in the watermark you find the portrait of Princess Europa. You find behind her a little bit of the architectural motive that is the main motive of the note and you will also find a numeral that gives you the value, the denomination of the note and that denomination, you will see that it is particularly light when you look at the note in transmitted light. Yeah, it's a little bit brighter than the other things. It is brighter than the other things, yes. And now here comes a little trick which is very easy to do. Check the watermark two ways. Hold it up to the light as we just did and now put it down onto a dark surface. That could be your mobile phone or it could be your wallet. And you will, surprise surprise, notice that this 20 which was so light against transmitted light turns dark. Oh yeah, absolutely. So what I saw in the light, the number, the portrait of Europa and the window, they're now dark. So it goes from light to being dark. So that's an additional way to check. Right, there's two ways to check a watermark and I'm not telling you a secret by saying counterfeiters who sport to imitate the image of the watermark, they will get to a certain extent in the view against transmitted light, but they will hardly ever get near showing the effect that you've just noticed when you put your note down on a dark surface. Okay, so we've got the last one left, tilt. Tilt. You've got two main features for the tilt category. One is what we call the emerald number. It's the denomination that you see below the watermark in the lower left corner of the note. Ah yes. When you look at that numeral straight on, you will see that it's emerald green with some metallic glitter effect. It's wonderfully strong, isn't it the color? Right, that's where it gets its name from, the emerald number. And you will notice that there is some horizontal bar across that numeral which looks lighter than the rest. Now as you start tilting the note a little bit back and forth, that horizontal bar is moving up and down and if you tilt the note far away from you, preferably against a light source, you will notice that it turns from emerald green to a dark blue. Indeed, a kind of sapphire. That's beautiful. Indeed, from emerald to sapphire to stay in the world of gemstones. So it has these two effects and if you happen to have a 100 or 200 euro note in your hands, there is yet an additional feature in the emerald number which is a pattern of euro logos and as you tilt the note, they change their brightness compared to the surrounding surface. And the second way with tilt? And the second way with tilt is the hologram stripe. At the right margin of the note, you have a series of holographic images and they will do all kind of rainbow color effects as you look at them. This is nothing to describe in words. It's something you have to see and you have to memorize a little bit what they do when you tilt the note. Even subconsciously, if you happen to have a counterfeit in your hands and you try the same thing, it won't do the same effects. So you will notice that it looks different. You might not be able to describe what exactly looks different but it could be that precious moment where you say something's probably wrong with that note, I better have a second look. Well it's really worth doing because it's a work of art. I'm looking at it and I could sit and do that for hours but it's also a security feature so that's wonderful. Absolutely and you said the right thing. Banknotes in our wallets, they are little pieces of art that we carry around. Let's appreciate them a little bit shouldn't we? Now listeners remember feel, look, tilt. That's all it takes to check whether a banknote is real or not. Now obviously this is an audio podcast and we've tried to describe this process in as much detail as we could but we do have a video guide on our website so we'll link to that in the show notes as well. It's good to be prepared and to learn these very simple steps Martin but how likely am I to actually come across a fake banknote in real life? Well we can proudly say that there's not too many counterfeit euros around and we can even be more proud to say that those that are around are of a very low quality and that they're very easy to detect. Now our latest figures just came out on counterfeit banknotes and if I recall correctly it was 12 in every 1 million was that right? Right 12 counterfeits per 1 million issued banknotes were detected in circulation in the year 2021 which is the lowest value in the history of the common currency. All across Europe we had 347,000 counterfeits in the year. Now that may sound a big number but you have to imagine the number of genuine notes out there and you have to imagine that this currency is serving 340 million people as their day-to-day money and on that relation we can say that the level of counterfeiting is really really low. But always good to be vigilant Always good to be vigilant indeed and here's a little story about being vigilant. Imagine you're going to buy some tomatoes. A tomato is probably worth something between 20 and 40 cents. I bet every single tomato that you put in your shopping basket will have been inspected very thoroughly from all sides not to have a tomato which is half rotten or has a soft spot. Oh absolutely yeah. Right now you go to the checkout and you pay and as change you receive a 20 euro banknote. That 20 euro banknote is worth 50 or 100 tomatoes and how much attention do you pay to that banknote whether it's fake or genuine? Not much or not enough. Not enough. Not a fraction of what you dedicated to every single tomato. Now admittedly and statistically the likelihood of finding a rotten tomato is much higher than finding a fake euro banknote but the logic behind is the very same. You don't want rotten tomatoes you check your tomatoes. You don't want fake banknotes you check your banknotes. Now I'm dying to ask you the million dollar or rather million euro question have you ever received a counterfeit banknote in your private life? I have not and I can tell you that having been interested in banknotes since I was a boy I have checked every single banknote that got into my hands for decades and still it never happened. Now something else I want to touch upon here is banknotes and the coronavirus. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic we saw a move to cashless payments partly out of fear of infection. I'm sure we all remember there were so many open questions how can we infect ourselves? Does the virus travel by air or is it also dangerous to touch surfaces? Well we looked into this. Our research showed that the risk of the virus being transmitted by banknotes and coins is very low. Of course we'll link to that research in the show notes. So our banknotes are safe to use not only from a counterfeiting perspective but also a health one Martin let's take a look now at the future so what's next for euro banknotes? As guardian of the euro one of our key tasks is safe payments and the needs of all Europeans. We're making sure that banknotes are available as a competitive and attractive means of payment and at the same time we're investigating the possibility of launching a digital euro because a healthy payment system offers ways to pay that suit everyone. We've already come a long way since the birth of banknotes and we're always looking at ways to develop our banknotes and that's not just about making them safer but also greener. Our banknotes are made of cotton and we're working on making that cotton 100% sustainable. We're also looking at the design itself so what we talked about earlier what the banknote looks like. And at the end of last year we announced that we will be redesigning our banknotes for the first time since they were launched. It's a final decision in 2024 on how they should look and after that we'll plan their rollout. Now Martin why have we decided to redesign our banknotes? Well the current designs are more than 20 years old so they were created in the second half of the 1990s and it's about time to look into refreshing the design and now it's really time. So what can people expect from the redesign? What will the banknotes look like? Well we don't know yet. This is an ongoing process and we are determined to involve the citizens of Europe in that process so we want your opinion on what a future banknote could look like to make the banknote that Europeans identify with even better than with what we have. What we currently have is the archways, the windows, the bridges but they are not showing any really existing bridge or existing window. So it's all about making sure that Eurobanknotes are more relatable to Europeans of all ages and all backgrounds. Right, we're looking for something that Europeans can identify with. European values for instance, something that would tell everybody this is Europe in our hands. Well I'm really curious to see what ideas are put forward. Now before we finish we always ask our guests if they have a tip for our listeners linked to the topic that we're discussing today. Martin what's your tip about banknotes for our listeners? Take your time to look at Eurobanknotes and when you're travelling abroad you're also at the banknotes of the countries that you're visiting. I vividly remember that was pre-Euro times walking all through Rome to visit all the places that were depicted on the 50,000 year note with the portrait of Bernini the Fontana del Tritone, the works of art of Bernini in the Vatican and I made a similar experience with a Eurobanknote. If you look at the reverse side of a 5 Euro accurate that you see there, it very much reminds you of the famous Pont du Gar in southern France near Nîmes. So finally on a holiday to France I got to that place and you would have seen me standing in front of the real Pont du Gar holding up my note to compare and to convince myself that yes this image is certainly inspired by the Pont du Gar but the arches are different and it is still a fantasy image of a Roman bridge and not a picture of the real one. Well that brings us to the end of this episode and thank you so much for being here today Martin. It was really a fascinating conversation. Thanks very much indeed. Check out the show notes for further reading on this topic. You've been listening to the ECB podcast with Katie Ranger. If you like what you've heard please subscribe and leave us a review. Thank you for listening. Until next time, thanks for listening.