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500 Euros - Specimen for the promotion of the Euro
| Issuer | Banque de France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1998 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Euros |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The face of this promotional specimen draws stylistically from the final Banque de France note series issued before Euro adoption, with a cartographic vignette of the European continent positioned to the right of centre within a multicolour guilloche underprint. The twelve-star European Union flag appears in the upper left corner, and the denomination 500 EURO is repeated across the design in overprinted letterpress legends. A zero-serial-number reference AA 0000000 replaces a regular serial, accompanied by multiple SPECIMEN overprints and the year 1998. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse centres on a decorative vignette of three intertwined national flags of the eleven founding Eurozone member states — Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, France, Finland, Belgium, and Austria — interspersed with European Union flags in a formal compositional grouping. A calendar sheet inscribed MARDI 1 JANVIER 2002, marking the date of Euro cash introduction, anchors the lower centre of the design. SPECIMEN overprints and the promotional legend Sans Valeur Pour la Promotion de l'EURO appear in the lower portion of the note. |
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| Comments |
Produced at the Chamalières facility in 1998, a full year before the euro entered circulation as a book-money currency, this specimen was part of the Banque de France's internal and public-facing campaign to familiarize both bank staff and the general population with the incoming denominations. The 500 euro note was always the highest denomination in the inaugural series and generated early controversy — Germany's Bundesbank had pushed for it, while several other member states worried it would facilitate tax evasion and cash hoarding.
Specimens of this type were never legal tender and carry no serial numbers. Chamalières had been printing French banknotes since 1923.