Nothing on a euro banknote is real.
The bridges aren’t real bridges. The windows and gateways on the front aren’t real windows. When the currency was designed, using a real landmark meant choosing a country, and choosing a country meant leaving out the rest.
So the Austrian designer Robert Kalina drew invented ones. Each note got an architectural era instead of a place. Classical on the five, Gothic on the twenty, Modernism on the five hundred.
Europeans have been handing each other pictures of buildings that don’t exist for twenty-four years.
Except in one town. In 2011 a Dutch artist named Robin Stam built all seven bridges in Spijkenisse, outside Rotterdam, in bright poured concrete. He wrote to the ECB first, and they approved it. You can cycle across the money.
Now the bank is replacing the design and asking the public to weigh in on ten proposals.
There are two themes. European culture breaks the old rule and puts six real people on the notes: Leonardo da Vinci, Beethoven, Marie Curie, Maria Callas, Bertha von Suttner and Miguel de Cervantes.
The same six show up in every version, so the only thing separating those proposals is how they’re arranged. The second theme is rivers and birds, standing in for freedom and unity.
Voting is open until mid-September. After that a jury picks one and the approval process starts.
All ten are on the ECB’s site, and they’re worth a look.
Designs courtesy of the European Central Bank. Spotted via Colossal.
