0 Euro Abbaye de Silvacane

The zero euro souvenir note program, launched commercially around 2015, is issued by Euro Souvenir — a private French company — and licensed by the European Central Bank, which permits the denomination precisely because no legal tender obligation attaches to it. Oberthur Fiduciaire prints them to genuine banknote specification, same security paper and intaglio work used on circulating issues, which is the point: the tactile quality is the product.

Silvacane, a Cistercian abbey in Provence founded in 1144, has been state-owned since the Revolution. The note exists because the site needed a gift-shop revenue stream.