In the first six months of the year, the European Central Bank, through the 17 national central banks in the euro area, has withdrawn from circulation approximately 296,000 counterfeit euro banknotes. A figure down 18.8%. As usual, these are the breaks of 20 and 50 euros that have been copied the most, with respectively 43 and 36% of counterfeit notes detected. Thus, the probability of having one day turn a fake is minimal, since currently, 15 billion euro banknotes circulating in the world with 13 billion in the hands of 330 million Europeans.
How to recognize a counterfeit bill? "First is the button: the ticket must be firm and crack when it is bent, and some inscriptions in relief is palpable. Then you look at it: we mark the traditional watermark, the black security, we detect signs of security by transparency, etc..And then tilts: the band or disc holographic silver toggles the face value and the € symbol, "said Francis Coustin, communications director of the Bank of France, stating that there are eight recognizable security features of immediately, then another series of signs visible with ultraviolet light, which traders often have, and finally other signs that only the European Central Bank and national central banks can detect. In all, there are 63! (See the interactive presentation of the security features of the ECB)
The ECB shall ensure consistently maintain its technological edge on the counterfeiters, who face risks thirty years' imprisonment and 450,000 euros fine. The Bank of France, also a civil party, does not claim a symbolic euro in damages.Within the Eurosystem, work is underway to develop a second series of euro banknotes, the theme will look like the current (see box).
A ticket is damaged, torn, not calcined is not lost
Think again if you think the ticket you just go to the machine, or your child has torn, is worthless. While it may legitimately be refused by your merchant, but the Bank of France, she will be able to replace them. In extreme cases – ticket sales, burned, burned, mutilated, wet, soft, bonded, etc.. – It is always possible to be "paid" but for a fee of 20%.
Francis Coustin the occasion of the exhibition Euro: the exhibition at the Cité des Sciences and Industry at La Villette (Paris XX) until September 4 – which comes in a fun way about the history of the euro, its manufacture, the security features of tickets, etc..- Chronicles the misadventures of people who burned their tickets, ensuring that parts of the Vatican, Monaco or San Marino (Italy) should be retained as they are rare … and therefore valuable, but warns, however, that collecting tickets francs (date of exchange limit, February 17, 2012) does not promise any profit, "they will be worth nothing then strictly."
Euro: the exhibition, organized for the first time in France, the European Central Bank and the Bank of France, has already attracted over 100,000 visitors in recent months in Europe, from Barcelona to Tallinn via Rome or Berlin.
Cotton in the mass circulation
• How does one manufacture a ticket?
To make the paper is bleached cotton fibers (only one note is made of cotton) in a water bath at high pressure and high temperature.The resulting pulp is then passed through a paper machine. To obtain the special paper, called Paper Trust, own bank notes, are incorporated in the paper some security features such as watermarks and security thread.
• Where do we manufacture the tickets?
In Europe, paper is supplied banknote paper to the fourteen high-security printers who print the euro banknotes in the European Union. In France, since 1915, tickets are no longer manufactured at Bercy, in Seine-et-Marne, but Chamalières (print) Auvergne – nothing to do with Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, who became finance minister from 1962 to 1966 -, and Vic-le-Comte (stationery). A year earlier, the Paris site was briefly occupied by the Germans, hence the decision to relocate the "safe" to an area less exposed.
• How many tickets are made in France?
In 2010, 2.45 billion tickets were delivered by the Manufacturing billest which 1738 billion euro, central banks outside the euro zone commander in France tickets. Every day, these are some 6.7 million tickets that are born in Auvergne.
• Where do the tickets then?
Once made, the tickets are sent to branches of the Banque de France equipped with crates. Then carriers (Brinks, etc.). Come back to supply banks, which themselves carry out their distributors, or retail, which brews each day astronomical amounts of cash, and merchants.
• How long does a ticket?
Tickets and circulate from hand to hand, and come back regularly and the Bank of France, which sorts all tickets at once, to put back into circulation as tickets safe and in good condition. To do this, sorting machines at high speed are used to check in a split second the authenticity of tickets. Notes unfit for circulation are destroyed and replaced.Finally, an average, the average life span of a 5 euro note is fourteen months and that of a ticket 50 euros for three and a half years.
• Some rules to know:
– A merchant has the right to deny him a ticket that looks suspicious, a merchant can refuse to cash more than 50 pieces in a single payment, a merchant has the right to refuse a big ticket for a small purchase: the customer must to the extra-A trader does not have the right to refuse display notes 100, 200 and 500 euros denying a legal tender banknotes is punishable under the Penal Code-If I a ticket printer or scanner, I am off-the-law.
The design of banknotes and coins
• Tickets continennent all a European monument and a bridge. But if some drawings look fiercely at a known site, none really exists.In December 1996 that ended the contest European models of the euro banknotes, which was won by Robert Kalina, designer of the National Bank of Austria. Gaphisme inspired by the architectural styles of seven periods in the history of European culture: the classic notes of € 5, the novel for those 10 euros, Gothic for 20euros, the Renaissance for 50 euros Baroque and Rococo for 100 euros, glass and steel to 200 euros, and the architecture of the twentieth century for 500 euros.
• As for parts, the idea was that they have a common European side (battery) and the national side (face). A European competition was then held to select the number of common sides. The winner was Luc Luycx, graphic designer at the Royal Belgian Mint. And in the end, the 17 countries of the euro area are some 136 different pieces move.The choice of the national side has done differently in each country. In Italy, the themes were selected by viewers of the Italian channel RAI. In monarchies, the effigies of kings were most often represented.
"Join the game" Rally France Euro 2011 for children aged 9 to 12 on www.euro.ecb.eu
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