5 Euros Europa Series

The Europa series 5 euro replaced the original 2002 issue and introduced the portrait watermark of Europa — a figure from Greek mythology drawn from a Louvre collection vessel — embedded into the paper itself, marking the first time a specific named figure appeared in ECB watermark security. Robert Kalina had designed the original series for the Oesterreichische Nationalbank competition in 1996; his Europa series revision retained the architectural vocabulary while incorporating substantially upgraded security architecture demanded by escalating counterfeiting pressure on the lowest denomination.

The 5 was the first Europa series note released, in May 2013, functioning as a live test of public and retail acceptance before the higher denominations followed at intervals through 2019.