ECB to present €100 and €200 notes in Sep-2018

[chrisild]

In about a month, the European Central Bank will present the designs of the new €100 and €200 notes. The "unveiling ceremony" will be on 17 September 2018 (Source). Since the €500 denomination will not be part of the second generation notes, this presentation completes the series.

(Well, it will be "complete" once the two are issued. But that takes some more time.)

Christian

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ECB notice ...

[eurocoin]

Who cares about these two. Like the 500 euro note these too are seldom seen in circulation as virtually nobody accepts them. With there now being fast other ways to transfer large amounts of money, which are also much safer, these have become pointless and should have been taken out of the series too.

[chrisild]

Not everything that is done or not done in your country is done or not done elsewhere.   Germany, Austria and Italy are more "cash oriented", and of course the €100 note is used here. Don't really want to politicize this - I dislike both the "only cash is freedom" and "cash is for criminals only" extremes, but I appreciate having different payment options.

Around here you can get €100 notes at ATMs, and depending on how much you need to pay at a store, they are also accepted by cashiers. Night service gas stations are a somewhat different story, but by and large the €100 notes are not exotic rarities.

The €200, oh well. Guess the fact that it is not used much also influenced the ECB's decision to present both at the same time.

Christian

[eurocoin]

Around here you can get €100 notes at ATMs, and depending on how much you need to pay at a store, they are also accepted by cashiers. [...] but by and large the €100 notes are not exotic rarities.

Well, I recently found out the hard way that you can get 100 euro notes from (some) ATM's here too, got stuck with some of these pointless notes. Which I then had to deposit again and then do another attempt to withdraw proper notes from the ATM. Interesting though that it is easier to spend them in other eurozone countries.

The €200, oh well. Guess the fact that it is not used much also influenced the ECB's decision to present both at the same time.

As I said, it should have been taken out of the series. Major waste of money to keep it.

[redlock]

Who cares about these two.

Germany cares 

The €100 note is widely accepted here in Germany. Cashiers at supermarkets don't even flinch when they get one. At least, at the markets I frequent.
Since last year, one of the two ATM at my local Sparkasse branch offers this denomnation. Before that, you could only get the €100 at the cashier. Why the ATM now? Because the customers wanted this option according to a cashier I spoke to.
As the €500 note will not be issued within the Europe series of ECB banknotes the €200 note will take it's place as a ''store of value.'' The ECB definitely thinks so because they ordered 715 Million of them. So, they are far from pointless.

By the way, doesn't your ATMs offer the option of selecting the break-down of banknotes for a withdrawl you want?

[chrisild]

Leaving the €200 in the new series was, at least partly, a political decision. It was hard enough for many Germans to "swallow" the ECB's decision of phasing the €500 out. Not because we use it a lot in everyday life, but out of a principle. Germany had, until the end of 2001, a 1000 DEM note (about €511) which most people did not use either, but it was there. And yes, we do have a variety of payment methods these days that do not require cash - however, hardly any of them allow anonymous transactions. Now some may say, so what. Well, once PSD2 will be in full swing, it may become common for third parties to get access to your bank account details.

Anyway, it would have been very difficult to take both the €200 and €500 note out. I also find it interesting that neighboring Switzerland is currently issuing its new banknote series - and no, they don't have a 500 note. However, there is a 200 CHF note ... and a 1,000 CHF note. The latter is worth about €880 these days, and I don't think the SNB plans to phase that denomination out.

Christian

[redlock]

However, there is a 200 CHF note ... and a 1,000 CHF note. The latter is worth about €880 these days, and I don't think the SNB plans to phase that denomination out.

Christian

In fact, the SNB announced that the 1000 CHF note will presented on 5-March-2019 and enter circulation on 13-March-2019.
see: https://www.snb.ch/en/mmr/reference/pre_20180815/source/pre_20180815.en.pdf

I cannot imagine that the SNB will back down from the decision to keep the 1000 CHF note.

Considering how unpopular Draghi is here in Germany I agree that keeping the €200 was partly a (wise) political decision.

[eurocoin]

Surprisingly they have changed their size so 1 million ATM's have to be adjusted before they are being put into circulation on May 28. The 100 and 200 euro notes will now have the same size as the 50 euro note.

[chrisild]

Not quite - the height of all three (€50, €100, €200) will be the same in the Europa series. But the lengths or widths will still be different. The ECB actually emphasizes that the new sizes will make it easier for machines to process the notes. Don't ask me ...

(Edit) The new sizes will be:
€50: 140 x 77 mm
€100: 147 x 77 mm
€200: 153 x 77 mm

Christian

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Two ECB videos that show and explain the security features:

€100
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8_qNwlAe6c

€200
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhCDwrRpYOI

[chrisild]

Three more weeks until we get to see the last two "missing" denominations. In the meantime, a new ECB video shows a few tests that euro notes are supposed to "survive".

Christian