{"id":604679,"date":"2026-07-26T07:39:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/604679\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T07:39:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T07:39:25","slug":"beethoven-or-birds-european-central-bank-unveils-new-banknote-designs-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/604679\/","title":{"rendered":"Beethoven or birds? European Central Bank unveils new banknote designs \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/european-central-bank-ecb\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/european-central-bank-ecb\/\">European Central Bank<\/a> (ECB) has offered a first glimpse of designs for a new generation of euro banknotes, just as it prepares to begin a trial of the digital version of the currency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">ECB president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/christine-lagarde\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/christine-lagarde\">Christine Lagarde<\/a> presented 10 options under the categories of \u201cEuropean culture\u201d and \u201crivers and birds\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Euro zone citizens can now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecb.europa.eu\/euro\/banknotes\/future_banknotes\/html\/design-proposals.en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.ecb.europa.eu\/euro\/banknotes\/future_banknotes\/html\/design-proposals.en.html\">vote on the options<\/a> until September 21st, before the central bank\u2019s governing council takes a final decision \u201caround the end of the year\u201d, according to a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This is the ECB\u2019s first major revamp since the euro\u2019s circulation began more than two decades ago. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Given the national symbolism often depicted on banknotes, their design has long been a sensitive matter in a currency union of 21 countries, including Ireland. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"The shortlisted designs for new euro banknotes. Photographer: Alex Kraus\/Bloomberg\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/C2L7XI43E7L4L2HCAJCBDHC6WM.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>The shortlisted designs for new euro banknotes. Photographer: Alex Kraus\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The present series features pictures of generic gates and bridges that don\u2019t refer to any existing buildings or landmarks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cEuro banknotes are more than a means of payment \u2013 they are one of the most tangible expressions of Europe,\u201d Lagarde said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Work on new paper money runs in parallel to preparations for a digital-euro introduction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This month the ECB chose 36 payment service providers including Revolut Bank, UniCredit and Deutsche Bank to participate in a 12-month pilot phase starting in the second half of 2027.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Potential new design for euro notes. Illustration: ECB\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ZNH27XRUSVED5F4BYWPCY2YVHA.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"422\"\/>Potential new design for euro notes. Illustration: ECB <img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Potential new design for euro notes. Illustration: ECB\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/25EG6QM3INC2HNUCQBFL6RBYHY.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"413\"\/>Potential new design for euro notes. Illustration: ECB <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The ECB started the process of overhauling euro banknotes, which includes an update to its security features, in 2021. It initially proposed seven themes before narrowing the choice to two in late 2023, following a survey of euro-area citizens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The ECB did not specify when exactly the new banknotes would be distributed to the public, only saying that the winning design would \u201cundergo further development and testing before going into production\u201d and \u201center circulation in subsequent years\u201d. \u2013 Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Central Bank (ECB) has offered a first glimpse of designs for a new generation of euro&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,17918,35272,18,9652,19,17,10927,69160],"class_list":["post-604679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-christine-lagarde","tag-deutsche-bank","tag-eire","tag-european-central-bank-ecb","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-revolut","tag-unicredit"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116985146356415479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}