The European Central Bank is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Euro, as members grapple with the effects of the pandemic on their economy. It is expected that the European Union forges a new level of financial cooperation to assist growth.
The celebration was celebrated by midnight fireworks displays of blue and yellow colors, which are the colors of the EU projected onto its high-rise office located in Frankfurt, Germany.
The introduction of coins and notes throughout 12 different countries on January 1st, 2002, was a significant logistical effort that followed the launch of the Euro as a currency for accounting and electronic payment three years prior.
The Euro is in use within 19 of the EU countries.
Cash introductions saw the new Euro coins and notes quickly substitute German mark, French Franks, and Italian lire at ATMs and cash registers, as well as purses and wallets.
Shop customers who purchased the old currency received the change in euros but at set exchange rates. The old coins were swept out of circulation while customers spent their remaining cash from their national bank.
The warnings about a disaster in logistics were not realized.
ECB President Christine Lagarde – in 2002 an attorney from a multinational law firm – was recalled taking the first Euro from a machine in her hometown of Normandy with her friends, who predicted that the switch would overflow the machines.
“We put bets on If the machine could give us French Francs instead of euros and the machine was able to hold that money,” She wrote on the website of the ECB.
“After the midnight hour, we went to our luck with the ATM. It gave us fresh, clean euro banknotes, and we all celebrated the brand new European money.”
The bank plans to revamp the notes, with a final decision about the new design expected in 2024.
The original designs with general windows, doors, and bridges of various times that do not depict any particular place or monument had seen a minor change since they were first introduced.
