Hi there! I was wondering what y'all's favourite new Euro banknote design is. Sadly, Reddit allows only up to 6 voting options. Based on comments in this subreddit, most people seem to prefer the bird designs. So I grouped all the designs with people on them
I mean, birds can also represent some countries more than others. Not everywhere has a stork for instance (even though from my knowledge it looks pretty balanced for the choices of birds. countries are certainly more represented than on the designs with people on them)
Yea, it seems to be pretty well representative (tho obviously more remote places like Iceland or Cyprus is still gonna be somewhat less represented by these)
I prefer people on banknotes. The popularity of birds came as a surprise to me.
You guys write that some candidates are unrecognizable or that some might not suit all countries. So, instead of looking for better candidates, you decided to get rid of the entire history of European history? I believe that people are the unifying factor, not birds. Did birds create the European Union or were they the decisive factor in creating a unified European spirit?
What kind of united Europe are you talking about if even people on banknotes seem to cause friction and disagreement, and you can't find candidates who suit everyone? Over thousands of years of history, haven't you found worthy people?
Why birds anyway. They say they can't name people and don't recognize them. Do you know the names of these birds? Do you know where they live? Why not include animals too. I'd like to see a large animal on the banknote, like the European bison. A fine animal.
I didn't say i didn't recognise them. I genuinely dont like any of the human designs, and on top of that i dont think real people should be in the notes for the same reason the old ones didn't have real buildings.
Also you cant say "look for better candidates" because we cant. These are the options that they gave to the artist.
The bird design is just more pretty, more neutral for every country and genuinely better designed than any of the human options.
And bird were probably chosen because most of these can be seen ALL over Europe instead of like the bison, there are none of those were i live. I could suggest a Iberian Lix and it a beautiful animal. But outside of the Iberian peninsula no other European could feel represented by it.
Design H having the most votes here makes me really hopeful that it will become the winner. I adore it very much, front and back! Especially the commission bulding with this gigantic EU banner flag looks epic.
I love that the designer thought to include the cries/calls, footprints, feathers etc. That's so informative!
But unfortunately I don't like how they've integrated those in the design, it looks a bit unintentional and quite cluttered.
Exactly the same. I'm very happy with the bridges design and I never understood why they wanted to move away from them. But among the current proposals, J have my preference. I find it neat.
I just cant unsee the AI look of the images. Its not their fault yet it makes them look soo cheap compared to the more abstracted birds in the other variants
D: I prefer the birds over people, I don't like the portrait-only designs, the drawings are neat on both sides and actually having both landscape and portrait is neat.
Same reason why it's my favourite! It has both a vertical and a horizontal side, and the back doesn't show those ugly buildings in such a prominent way
Yeah, i really want to like H, but the backside is so ugly. Beautiful birbs on one side, renderite-artists-impression-of-the-new-shopping-mall on the back...
I like the front design of H really much, the back is kinda ugly in my opinion though. The back design of D is far better, reminds me of Swiss banknotes
u/Eino54Double nationality gang (more Yuropean than you) 🇪🇸🇨🇵🇪🇺Jul 24 '26edited Jul 24 '26
Everyone is sleeping on J! I think it's such a unique design. Although the only downside I see maybe it doesn't look as much like bank notes, more like a piece of art (which makes sense, I looked the guy up and apparently he's a comic book artist). I also like I and H, if it can't be J. Of the humans I quite like G, it reminds me a little of art deco (but the birds are so much cooler).
J for the birds is definetlzy the best imo but the other side, don't like it so much, it's too zoomed in in addition to simoly not be so pretty I think
Birds are cooler and more aesthetic regardless, but I really hope the "famous people" series won't become the new design.
The first issue is that, no matter what people you choose, there's gonna be some debates as to whether the choices are good or not.
But the six people selected for the final draft just baffle me, like I'm only vaguely aware of the existence of some singer named Maria Callas, and I don't even know who the hell the woman on the €200 banknote is. As a born-and-raised Italian, I'm sure this applies to the overwhelming majority of the Italian population (so roughly 10% of the entire EU, and I assume this applies to most other EU countries as well). The sole fact that two out of six people are not universally known among EU citizens makes me want that design to lose so badly.
Also, why Cervantes? Is he more special than any other European writer or something? Why Leonardo da Vinci over any other scientist?
The only choices that make sense to me are Beethoven (composer of the EU anthem) and Marie Curie (extremely influential scientist that perfectly represents European unity and integration since she was a French-Polish dual national). But even if all six people selected made perfect sense, you would have the issue that roughly 20 out of 27 EU members would not be represented on the banknotes at all, which is enough for me to reject this design.
Cervantes has more acclaim than basically any other author older than three hunded years ago in Europe, and basically created the modern novel. I'll quote Wikipedia's first paragraph:
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his two-part novel Don Quixote, a work considered to be the first modern novel. Don Quixote has been labelled by many well-known authors as the "best book of all time"\c]) and the "best and most central work in world literature".
Dunno, I feel like people selected for the Euro banknotes shouldn't qualify for simply being famous people that happen to be from Europe. They should be representative of the EU and its symbols/values like I pointed out with Beethoven and Marie Curie.
Must say, I'm not terribly impressed with either. The upright design is a nice new touch. For the birds, it's #I (Daëron), #H, or #D for me. People designs I find...not good; even though I'm a huge fan of Callas or Cervantes. On those I'd go with a classic #E or #C design. Overly sketchy styles I find horrible tbh.
But, Beethoven looks really cool on the €10 on #G hehe
I actually absolutely love the Human design E. Reminds me so much of our old German DM bills from the front. But I dislike the back on them, I have to admit.
It should be with Europeans on the cover. The Euro is a symbol of unity and of such, historical characters from all over Europe act as a connection. As a German, I love seeing Michiangelo as a symbol telling me he is from the same culture heritage just like anyone else in Europe. The currency should act and use it's power as a symbol.
That what I miss with the birds. I get the message of freedom and everything. It just does not stick with me. It's a waste of potential. Same goes for the current bridges, I get the symbolistic message of connecting, but it does not reach my heart.
Except people represent 6 countries out of 27 (and growing) countries and most people don't even know who most of these people on the banknotes are.. everyone has seen a bird, not everyone listens to classical music, reads books or cares about science.. how would gen Z or gen alpha from Finland relate to Bertha von Suttner?
That's the thing about unity. You don't care about single regions if you understand yourself being part of something bigger. I feel as connected to Italian heroes as to German one.
The selection of people seems a good selection of different areas such as science, culture, etc.
My point still stands that not everybody cares about science, culture and politics, it's just people with three PhDs from top universities think everyone (should) cares, because they do..
I think even putting historical sites would be better, because people at least travel and visited those places
As for the birds, I love the artstyle of D, but I wish it wasn't vertical. I love the colours of H and the contrast the white band gives. If they could take the template and colours of H but use the artstyle and bird designs of D, that would be perfect. I also prefer the back design of H. J is also very pretty but it feels a bit much for a banknote
I favour human designs over birds, but how did nobody think of adding a "voting" scene? Voting and democracy is one of the most important traits of European society. Certainly more so than going to the park.
At least most of us agree that putting people on bank notes would've been a huge step backwards. However what's the problem with the current design why do we have to change it?
I like the concept of vertical banknotes on D but I just don't like the reverse with those hands nonsense.
So for me it would be either I for the vertical design or H overall.
I wished they had more overall continental design. Place where everyone can relate or experience. Maybe divided into regions to show togetherness, commonality within differences. I think all the designs are very specific to some countries. There is Beethoven but is it really relatable to Scandinavia or Iberia or Balkans?
The should keep the current concept and update it. Add a bird if you want, but keep the overall concept of architectural features, bridges, windows, objects, etc.
Why vertical layouts, why a sun in the middle for that reason? Did we move to the Far East suddenly? Or it's the only real change they'll allow themselves at the Central Bank?
I voted for human designs because E is my favorite and I like how they're thematically consistent (maybe not all of them?) for example the Beethoven one has musicians on the other side, the Da Vinci one has the Vitruvian Human. I don't like other human designs because either the portraits just look bad not being stylized at all, or the stylization just doesn't fit money imo (I'm biased by existing money though)
If I was forced to pick a bird design I'd go with H, but I don't really care for the birds and I don't like how all of them have glass office towers on the other side. There's so much different architectural styles in European history and designers of these notes decided to decidate all six notes to the same one, and one of the more boring ones too
Edit: I may be stupid since these are all EU institution buildings. Nonetheless, I'd prefer fictional buildings in various European styles rather than this
I have to question who came up with these designs as it is quite strange. They seemed to have completely missed the reason we didn't have people on any of the notes in the first place which makes me wonder if they actually know what they are doing. Then they really just give us variations on two options, people and birds.
I would rather have a combination of the buildings and scenes of life we see on the back side of various designs as the front and back as they are more relevant and representative of the continent and its people.
why would someone want humans? isnt the whole reason we didnt have anything country specific, to not make another country unhappy? and also we would just like any other generic currency
Design H because it's relatable but still a modern version of the Euro banknote design. I don't like standing bank notes because it looks just too Swiss.
I dont like the bird designs, not that there is anything wrong or bad, but in this tiktok age I think we should be reminded of some great people, not birds.
Ngl they all kinda suck. Including the current ones. The EU should just adopt the Polish banknotes. Clearly there's a reason our economy grew during the 2008 Recession.
Whaaat these were official stuff? I thought it was some kind of reddit thing... Yeah if we switch to any of those the Americans will be right calling the euro notes fake money
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u/MarkAWitch Jul 24 '26
I team stand up, I love the sun in the middle