2016-07-12 Tue

The 50 euros banknote is one of the most widely used as well as the most counterfeited banknotes in Europe. The European Central Bank would shortly release a brand new bill with the latest security features to curb such illegal activities.

Officials revealed that the notes have a transparent window with a holographic portrait of Europa and an “emerald number” that changes colour from green to blue when tilted.

In 2013, there were issues where some machines failed to recognize the newly-released five-euro notes. Officials want to make sure that this does not occur again. The details about the notes have been made public before the release so that manufacturers of vending, ticketing and other machines are well-prepared when the notes are actually released for circulation.

There has been a sharp increase in the use of 50-euro notes, almost fourfold in the last 15 years. These notes made up 45% of the total number of notes in circulation.

Experts state that many people from countries like German and Austria are still not confident about dealing in electronic transactions. They rather are happy to use physical money that can be stored.

Due to increasing cases of money laundering, the ECB had plans to pull off the 500-euro note from circulation in 2018. There were protests against this decision fearing that it was the first step to eliminate banknotes completely. This has been denied by the ECB though.