Banknotes and coins

The euro officially came into existence as a currency on 1 January 1999, although it was not until 1 January 2002 that it went into circulation and national banknotes and coins were withdrawn.

Since the creation of the euro, the volume of euro banknotes to be issued each year has been decided by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB). Putting these banknotes into circulation is the responsibility of the national central banks.

As regards euro coins, the ECB also has the exclusive right to approve the total value of coins to be issued; however, it is up to each country to calculate the number of coins required and to justify the resulting figure to the ECB , which authorises the appropriate volume to issue.

In this section you can find out all about euro banknotes and coins, as well as other interesting information on the now obsolete peseta.

For ease of access, the information has been arranged in two sections: one for the general public, and the other for professionals.