Banknotes
In this topic, you will find all information about €banknotes: circulating printing plates, technical data, quotation etc.
Click on the left on the desired facial value Description of the grading The issue of the conservation conditions of banknotes is the most important. During the introduction period of the Euro, everything was - theoretically - somewhere available in UNC condition. It is absolutely not the same today and many banknotes, from the first printing plates, no longer exist in UNC condition, except miraculously and by those who began their collection seriously, with assiduity and... in dealing with many correspondents.
Above all, to observe the condition of a banknote, look at it with an oblique halogen light: any deformation of the paper will cause a shadow. You will have to understand the defect you are facing: counting trace, crumpling, unbroken fold, flattened banknote, straighten corner... Let us try to define:
To simplify, there are two major families of banknotes:
- the banknote did not circulate but it may have been bad handled, the condition may be from UNC to EF+ (US=XF+).
- the banknote circulated, it may be from EF+ to VG.
- The UNC is brand new. It has rigorously never been used and always has been handled with care, presents perfectly acute peaks to the corners, not the least curvature, without any trace of crumpling or counting. This, also for the manual counting that causes a crumpling, usually in the left superior corner (or right for the left-handed cashiers) as for the counting machine that can mark very slightly the centre of the top of the banknote, or full the paper very slightly. All these small insignificant defects make your banknote “nearly UNCirculated”, “ne. UNC”.
- The About Uncirculated, AU , presents a small visible defect and/or a small unbroken wad fold.
The wad fold is the curvature that the paper of the banknote takes when it was folded in a new hundred banknotes wad: the more outside banknote, beared on the thickness of the other banknotes has a very small and almost invisible curvature. It will be “ne. UNC”. However, the internal banknote, stuck under the others, will completely bend up to "break the paper". The banknote condition falls directly to "EF". It is said that a fold is broken when the delimitation of the fold is visible darker when you hold the banknote up to the light.
In a folded wad, the grading goes from “ne. UNC” to “EF” through all the range of AU conditions from the outside to the inside.
- The extremely fine, EF (US=XF), could be defined as a banknote apparently new but which has a broken fold or several small unbroken folds.
- A banknote is classified as Very Fine, VF, as soon as it presents crumplings or folds, multiple evidences of an elevated circulation.
- Classified as Fine, F, all banknote you really don't want to enter your collection...
It is understandable that, as soon as we go out of the UNC and ne. UNC conditions, everything is a matter of evaluation.
To sum up:
If your banknote has any defect, even very small, it is not UNC.
If your banknote has a fold, even low marked and unbroken, it is not more ne. UNC.
If your banknote has a broken fold, it is in no case AU.
If your banknote has two broken folds, it is not more EF.
If your banknote is not more pleasant to look at and if its defects are glaringly obvious, it is no longer VF.
The stains, various maculations, stamps, scrawls are added to the banknote’s intrinsic defects. You may have a banknote in UNC condition with a stain and a banknote in FINE condition with the same stain: it is clear that the stain is not a sign of wear. For the anecdote, a blue and pink hundred francs banknote dated before 1900, in ne. UNC condition, was found with the ring of a bottle’s base marked on it... This banknote found a bidder well before VF copies of the same banknote without any stain! Note on the quotations of €banknotes It clearly appears to anyone sorting out wads of used €banknotes, wherever in Europe, that some combinations of countries, signatures and printers are extremely difficult to find, not to mention some specific printing plates numbers. A quotation cannot be given in relation to this scarcity because it is always possible that thousands or even millions of this banknote’s issue languish in a reserve. This quotation thus depends on an average of observed prices in French retailers’ shops. Indeed, as soon as you leave the national territory, prices may be different because the scarcities are not more the same.
Thus, each ADE member is encouraged to share with us its experiences when some quotations seem to be erroneous (in one way or in the other). All banknotes lacking to our catalog are to be kept and reported to us by a high resolution scan. For any comment, question or if you have new information to communicate to us, you can mail at: billets@amisdeleuro.org
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