Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Euros - Specimen for the promotion of the Euro
| Issuer | Banque de France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1998 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Euro (2002-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| Reverse lettering | MARDI 1 JANVIER 2002 SPECIMEN Sans Valeur Pour la Promotion de l'EURO |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| 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.