The Europa series 20 Euro was introduced in November 2015, the third denomination released in the redesigned series following the 5 and 10. Like all Europa notes, it incorporates a portrait of Europa — the Phoenician princess from Greek mythology — embedded in the watermark and hologram, taken from a 2nd-century BC vessel held in the Louvre. The decision to include a mythological figure rather than any historical European was itself a deliberate political compromise.
The emerald number, introduced across the Europa series, produces a light effect visible to the naked eye and was specifically engineered to defeat the increasingly sophisticated scanning and printing equipment available to counterfeiters by the early 2010s.
The Europa series 20 Euro was introduced in November 2015, the third denomination released in the redesigned series following the 5 and 10. Like all Europa notes, it incorporates a portrait of Europa — the Phoenician princess from Greek mythology — embedded in the watermark and hologram, taken from a 2nd-century BC vessel held in the Louvre. The decision to include a mythological figure rather than any historical European was itself a deliberate political compromise.
The emerald number, introduced across the Europa series, produces a light effect visible to the naked eye and was specifically engineered to defeat the increasingly sophisticated scanning and printing equipment available to counterfeiters by the early 2010s.