0 Euro - Louis XVI - Roi de France 1774-1792

Eurosouvenirs zero-euro notes are legal collector issues produced under license from the European Central Bank, with Oberthur Fiduciaire — one of the few security printers with deep roots in French banknote production — handling the majority of the series. Louis XVI makes for an uneasy choice of subject: the last Bourbon king of France before the Revolution, he was executed by guillotine in January 1793, just months after the monarchy was formally abolished.

The watermark is the only meaningful security feature retained from conventional currency production — enough to satisfy the ECB licensing requirement, not enough to deter counterfeiting of something worth nothing.