Beethoven and Marie Curie compete with birds to appear on new euro notes

He was a master of notes, and now the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven could be one of the faces of the redesigned euro, the first time the EU currency’s banknotes have been revamped.

In a process that started in 2021 and has already involved a public inquiry and two multidisciplinary advisory groups, the European Central Bank (ECB) has selected two themes for the redesign.

The bank has called for design suggestions on one of two possible themes: “iconic European personalities who have contributed to building Europe’s cultural heritage” – including Maria Callas, Beethoven, Marie Curie, Miguel de Cervantes and Leonardo da Vinci – or rivers and birds “highlighting the resilience and diversity of Europe’s natural ecosystems”.

Christine Lagarde, the ECB president, said the banknotes were due for their first revamp since their launch on 1 January 2002. “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,” she said. “The new banknotes will symbolise our shared European identity and the diversity that makes us strong.”

There are two tables of options, listing a €5 Callas opera singer note, which on its reverse side will have street performers entertaining passersby, or a €10 Beethoven note, along with “a song festival with a choir of children and young adults singing”. Bertha von Suttner (€200), the Austrian pacifist and first woman to win the Nobel peace prize, is apparently worth 10 times the Polish-French scientist Marie Curie, an option for the €20.

In the “rivers and birds” table option, a seascape of a northern gannet flying over big ocean waves is envisioned for the €200 note, with the European court of auditors on the back, while the European parliament is placed on the smallest €5 note, with a mountain spring and “wallcreeper next to a mountain landscape” on the other side.

Could a northern gannet grace the €200 note? Photograph: Stuart Greenhalgh/Alamy

Since 2016, the ECB has no longer issued a €500 note due to “concerns that this banknote could facilitate illicit activities”. Rob Wainwright, the then director of Europol, told the Dutch public broadcaster NOS at the time that the notes were far too handy for crime. “What we are seeing at Europol is that criminals and terrorists are using the €500 note … as their denomination of choice,” he said. “One million euros in €500 notes … can be moved in one small briefcase. Very convenient for these criminals and terrorists.”

The leading European figures selected by the ECB could prove controversial, according to Reuters, as only six of the eurozone’s 20 countries are represented. Initial reactions on social media have also been critical, with calls for more focus on price stability instead of new notes. “Don’t fall for the ‘we love Europe’,” said one commentator on X. “Buy gold, silver and commodities.”

Fierce division about the subjects for euro notes is nothing new. When the euro banknotes were created by the Austrian designer Robert Kalina, his “ages and styles of Europe” notes featured seven abstract, fictional bridges representing different design eras, rather than choosing one country’s designs or historical figures over the others. However, all these carefully neutral bridges now belong to the Netherlands, since the Dutch designer Robin Stam recreated them in his home town of Spijkenisse in 2011.

The ECB still needed to organise a contest for EU designers, a jury, public consultation on the shortlist and the governing council decision, before a two-year process to get the notes into circulation, a spokesperson said. The cost of the redesign is understood to be between 5 cents and 8 cents per banknote.