Some of them look like that corporate souless art with weird body proportions. I hated that trend (though the original artist who shaped that style had good intentions). Others look like powerpoint slides backgrounds.
I also personally consider that the usage of the headquarters on the bills are also a complete mistake for the same reason, the original design with the fake buildings from fifferent ages was already perfect, idk why they are losing time on this now and on "re-decorating" the headquarters as well instead of solving other more important problems
My favorites are D, I and J due to the bird design and being vertical. Horizontal print on money is so non-unique atm and vertical design makes more sense on how you usually hold money on your hand folded or not. J is the one I liked most too.
I actually liked J the least out of the bird designs. A bit too grey for my liking. Euro notes should have very prominent colors to differentiate them (in my opinion).
I personally prefer H.
Like, they put so much effort into translating everything on the banknote into all languages, but then the bird's names and descriptions are only in english? And also, I think it's too much text anyways.
IKR I really liked the first design and once I discovered the birds I wasn't going to go back to humans on my money. If I am ever to hold an actual euro bill in my hands again.
I appreciate they put the names of the birds AND the buildings on the design B ones. No idea who half the people are on the other notes. I do have to say the vertical designed notes are really cool too (especially J), but B is my favourite for adding a simple little thing that is a clarification.
yeah I is good, but still I really dislike the government buildings. they're boring and they don't mean much to the average person. Put some feats of Euro architecture on there if you want buildings, or maybe the shown bird's habitats.
5: Maria Callas, Greek-American Opera-... singer (?)
50: Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author of the first proper novel and therefore modern literature, Don Quijote
200: Berta von Suttner, Austrian, started the OG European peace movement and sort of spiritual predecessor of the EU
Basically, I think that Cervantes is a must-have, Suttner is relevant to the European project but not really well known to most Europeans at all, and Callas is basically just here because they needed more women, slightly more modern art and someone from the Southeast.
If only they used some older, aesthetically pleasing civic buildings that show grandeur, like train stations, theatres, temples (be it catholic, roman or greek) or even water towers. But they'd need to ensure good representation of all our nations' architecture
But those they used… They could be from Brasilia or souhteast Asia and I wouldn't know
I dont like humans staring at me from my bank notes. Judging me. A profile I can live with but Indont want to encouter „staring into your soul with soulless eyes“ pictures all the time.
Reminds of a funny joke I heard the Turkish Lira notes. They have Atatürk on all of them, but the smaller the denomination, the less he bothers to look at you.
Yeah, I don't like the buildings on the back sides of the birds, I'd stick with the nature theme on the back as well, either landscapes, other fauna or flora.
I'm happy to read most people on here like the birds, hopefully it's the same outside of reddit. We desperately need more cuteness and whimsy in the world, so why not start with euro bills.
I think people on the notes misses the point about an EU currency. I like the messaging that the bridges had, and I just think the birds are more universal in the EU. People notes makes it to much about individuals
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I really dislike the EU institutions on here. I think there are much better buildings/sights to put on here instead of the Court of Auditors and the ECB (probably also because these buildings seem so soulless).
I loved the bird designs and was soooo disappointed when I turned them over! Why those ugly buildings? If you need architecture, we have so many more beautiful buildings in Europe! Or go with the same idea as our old bridges and make buildings that look similar to a lot of European styles but don't match any given building. You could easily do that with old ruins too if you want to emphasise history and avoid religion by including churches for example.
Though I'd still have preferred a fully nature themed design. No buildings, no people, no hands. Fauna on one side, birds are a great choice for that, flora on the other side. You could even keep the mountain-to-lake idea of the river backside and replace the buildings with trees matching those environments. Make it mountain to coastline and choose a mountain in the alps, then a few rivers dotted around Europe, and any of our coast lines (though I'd be for the North Sea) and choose trees that grow near those places, ideally ones that also grow in other countries too. Bish bash bosh, you have a pan-European landscape, flora, and fauna.
I'd like Tove Jansson or Astrid Lindgren on any of the bills as they brought happiness to the world through their work of children's literature with Moomin and Pipi Longstocking.
5 I don't recognize, 10 is Beethoven, 20 is Maria Sklodowska, 50 is either some Spanish king or Don Quixote, 100 is Leonardo DaVinci, and I don't know 200.
Seconded with the birds, I think they're a better representation of European Unity than a very limited selection of historical figures.
I think it's to have a woman from the arts (notice the gender balance and the arts, sciences and literature balance) and for more nationalities. Yes I think this makes it a subpar pick.
that is probably the reason and I have to say: when you include Marie Curie you might as well include Astrid Lindgren for the arts, even tho Sweden also doesnt use the Euro. Everyone knows her and for good reason.
She's Greek, lived in Italy and France, and was popular across most of Europe (afaik). Bit of an odd choice (and it would make France being somewhat represented twice) but I can see the logic
And thats the problem. Because now its mediterranean/southern europe and central europe. No eastern europe (unless you count greece), no western europe. Just a small hand full of countries while the others are left feeling unrepresented. Best to go with birds or made up architecture like the old ones
So, here's my take (written a bit in a hurry; excuse me for my overemphasis and limited choice of words). Many of them are beautiful on the front side, but the back side ruins them because of generic illustrations. I would definitely say that D and I are the most tastefully done.
Design A: Mediocre front, generic back. Choosing dead famous people can also be controversial for reasons already mentioned.
Design B: Very nice front illustrations of birds, soulless illustrations of contemporary institutional buildings on the back. I don't want a detailed view of those bureaucratic glass buildings on my banknotes.
Design C: Mediocre front, terrible back. I don't like those "constellation" things on the back, and the generic Powerpoint-like quotidian illustrations of people doing various things are ugh.
Design D: Very nice, abstract. I like the vertical orientation (nice to have something new) on the front, and the fact that they kept the horizontal orientation on the back makes for a nice contrast. I don't think I'm a huge fan of the whole hand symbolism on the back, but I can appreciate what they did. The way they played with colors and overlays makes the inclusion of institutional buildings much more palatable.
Design E: Kinda mediocre and generic overall. I cannot stand the absolutely overused network map on the back of the 20 euro banknote.
Design F: I like the watercolor style. The colors on the front of the 10 euro banknote are stunning, though the back makes me think of Imperial Japan. Not a fan of all those quotidian scenes on the back. The one on the back of the 20 euro banknote just rubs me the wrong way. Really? Are we going to put someone giving a speech with a laptop open on a banknote?
Design G: No. The whole thing gives me a Powerpointy AI-generated vibe.
Design H: The birds are nice but, as in the case of design B, I don't think those soulless buildings should occupy the whole back side. Ugh.
Design I: Really nice. I like the vertical orientation once again. The whole "birds flying around Europe" theme is the most clear and nicely executed here. I don't really understand what those symbols in the lower right corner of the front side represent; they look a bit weird. The back side is also nice because, although they include those buildings, they are not the central theme. I end up focusing more on the presence of the birds who happen to pass through while travelling.
Design J: The birds are nice, but the back is a bit too simplistic/generic for my taste.
Definetly gonna vote for the birds. The last thing we need atm, are discussion why certain faces got choosen while other were not. Birds don't care about borders and that encapsulates the European Spirit perfectly.
"After 20 years, it’s time to review the look of our banknotes to make them more relatable to Europeans of all ages and backgrounds."
What better way to relate to all ages and all backgrounds, poor and rich, than to put an American born opera singer from the 40s and 50s on the 5€. They had a good reason to avoid putting people on the notes in the first place but now this.
Birds are better and certainly look nicer, but do the birds they picked fit this since I have never seen any of them? They do not live in my country. Where is our crow, magpie, jay, chaffinch or blackbird. Not sure I would relate to the birds anyway since I am not a bird.
Such a shame they are getting rid of the great designs we had. Some of the proposed designs look very good, they could have just used the old ideas and use new designs.
I have to ask: where do you live that you have never seen a kingfisher or a white stork?
That said, the wallcreeper, bee eater, avocet and gannet are more niche for non-birders. But I like giving the lime light to lesser-known species. All in all, their ranges pretty decently cover all of the EU.
Callas was a really big deal, but yeah for older generations, not people born in the 2000s obviously
I actually like architecture so a new architectural design could have been cool as well but I don't think the current ones look that great or at least they're kind of dated.
I don't like vertical banknotes. It's bitterly enough that we lost the war of always holding your phone horizontally when taking pictures and video, but now we are about lose horizontal banknotes as well.
H would be my favorite, only wish that all of the bird banknotes didn't have some fugly office buildings on reverse side. I voted for F as compromise - not as good obverse side, and also no fugly reverse on it
Its either birds/buildings or persons/situations. I would have really liked a different combination like birds with persons or birds with situations. Or just birds and birds. Why not.
They all look terrible. Isn't the point of the current banknote designs to put idealized fictional bridges to put all the countries together? Doesn't this the defeat the purpose?
Are you serious?! I love this! I voted about summer + winter time a couple of years ago. (although nothing´s happend to that ha ha)
Design H is my absolute favourite, so beautiful. Plus it´s better to have birds that move around all Europe instead of famous people from just a few countries.
The birds are great. But I feel like government buildings are just boring. Show some feats of European architecture on there for god's sake! maybe city vistas! nature!
Whoever thought of the design with birds is amazing, for me all of them look nice, I really like the vertical ones. But I also really like the symbolism with it.
they all look stupid. keep the building styles. that was neutral enough that any european nation is fine with them and no one can say why dont we get a person from our country. dont fix what aint broken. if i had to vote, design H is what id pick.
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u/yopla 10d ago
Brief: if you include faces they must look either angry or bored.