Birds and Buildings, or Famous Cultural Figures—those are the two concepts featured by the semi-finalists in the long search for designs to replace Europe’s banknotes.
Final decisions will be made by the end of this year, and the bank is asking for public input on the designs it’s moved to the final stages. New notes based on the winning design will start to appear in about three years. The notes replace a series issued between 2013 and 2019, which in turn replaced the original 2002 series. All notes are still legal tender.
The Birds and Buildings scheme would pair typical European birds each with a building associated with European institutions: the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Council and the Council of the European Union, and the European Court of Auditors.
That’s six buildings for the €5, €10, €20, €50, €100 and €200 notes that are issued. There was originally also a €500 note, but it was discontinued in 2019.
If the other proposal is adopted, the chosen figures are Greek-American soprano Maria Callas, Polish-French scientist Marie Curie, German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, and Austrian peace activist Bertha von Suttner.
Several designers submitted proposals for one or other of the themes; they can be seen and voted on at the Central Bank’s website
