Euro
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Euro is the currency (money) of the countries in Eurozone.One Euro is subdivided into 100 Euro cent. It was created in 1999, but until January 1 2002 it was used only for electronic transactions. In 2002, 12 countries of Europe belonging to EU (The European Union) eliminated their national currencies completely and adopted Euro notes and coins as their only monetary means. There was a transition period when both the old national money and the Euro was accepted, but by February 28 2002, all 12 countries were using just Euros.
In 2007, Slovenia became the 13th country to use the euro, with a transition period until January 14.
There are 7 different banknotes (bills), each one with a specific color, size and face value: € 5 (grey), € 10 (red), € 20 (blue], € 50 (orange), € 100 (green), € 200 (yellow), € 500 (purple).
Coins are of 8 different values: € 0,01, € 0,02, € 0,05, € 0,10, € 0,20, € 0,50, € 1, € 2.
On every banknote, there is a picture of a different European architectural style. All banknotes are the same throughout the entire Eurozone - there are no different designs for different countries, unlike the Euro coins. One side of each coin is the same in all Euro countries. The other side is different since each country who mints the coins inserts a symbol relating to that country. Today there are 12 different sets of coins. Any of the coins can be used everywhere throughout the Eurozone despite the country-specific symbol on the back.
The 10 new European countries that entered the EU in May 2004 are planning to also adopt the Euro, a goal attainable after those countries achieve relative economic stability.
[edit] Symbol
The symbol for the euro is the Greek letter epsilon (E) with two horizontal lines: €.
Some people see it as the Latin capital letter C with an equal sign (=).
It is also legal to simply write Euro. This is especially useful when the symbol cannot be produced, or the result is not satisfactory.
Members of the Eurozone are:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Ireland
- Italy
- Luxembourg
- Portugal
- Slovenia
- Spain
- The Netherlands
Even though they aren't part of the EU, the euro is also the currency used in:
The countries above form the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
Many other countries' currencies are "pegged" (tied) to, although not exactly equal to, the euro:
- Cape Verdean escudo
- Comoros franc
- Central African CFA franc
- West African CFA franc
- Pacific CFP franc
- Bosnia-Herzegovinan convertible mark
- Morocco dirham
- Bulgarian lev
- Hungary forint
- Denmark krone
- Cyprus pound
- Estonian kroon
- Lithuanian litas
- Latvian lat
- Malta lira
- Slovakia koruna
[edit] External links
