Design

For the euro’s launch in January 2002, 7 banknotes and 8 coins were designed. Notes share the same design across all euro area countries. Coins have a common design on one side, and a country-specific design on the other. 

A Europa series of banknotes has been introduced gradually over the years. Under the responsibility of the European Central Bank and the national central banks, these notes include enhanced security features and a new design, featuring a portrait of the mythological figure Europa. 

Symbol

The name “euro” was chosen in 1995 at a European Council meeting in Madrid. 

The symbol € is based on the Greek letter epsilon (ε), with the first letter in the word “Europe” and with 2 parallel lines signifying stability. 

The ISO code for the euro is EUR. This is used when referring to amounts without the symbol.

Copyright

The European Union, represented by the European Commission, owns the copyright for the euro symbol. However, in some cases, the EU Intellectual Property Office has agreed to register certain logos containing the euro symbol, provided they are sufficiently creative and different from the official euro symbol. 

Rules for the euro name

• The name must be the same in all EU languages – “euro”, taking into account the different alphabets. This includes EU legal texts. This is “'ευρώ” in the Greek alphabet and “евро” in Cyrillic. 
• Plural forms are accepted if they do not change the “eur-“ root. 
• Other spellings are accepted in non-EU legal texts, such as national law. 

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