It's my opinion obviously but I think this is dumb. I mean unless they are given out for free which I doubt. Why wouldn't someone just go to a bank or exchange and get an actual banknote of value? Especially when you can get a 1€ for less than $2. EDIT: Interestingly, I think the Notre Dame cathedral is on it. That might make it something worth collecting. ???
Umm, you realize that those have been issued since 2015 or so? And that there are thousands of different designs? Too many in my opinion (you can even get them with references to India or the US which have zero connection to the euro), but apparently they sell well. As for Notre-Dame, in the first year they focused on sites in France, so the monuments on the common side were all French. Then they "went European" and adapted that side which now shows various European sites. These "notes" are made by Oberthur which is one of the euro note printers, and they almost feel like real money. They even have some of the security features ... This is the site of the issuer: https://www.billets-touristiques.com/ (see "Liste" or "Galerie" to learn more about the issues) Christian
I didn't know it started in 2015 or have thousands of different designs but how is that relevant to my opening post? Do you know how many different variations there are? How many were printed for each? I'll try looking it up but figure I'll ask in case someone here knows the answer already.
Just to clarify ... these are not official notes of course but third party souvenir notes, first created by Richard Faille who, before those, made (and made money with) souvenir tokens. Around here those zero euro "notes" are quite popular; here is a screenshot from a German coin forum (emuenzen.de) which has a section dedicated to them. Currently 1,448 topics, 23,534 posts, and 27 sub-forums. Christian
Normally these go (ungraded) for around $5.00 apiece. Since the fire, I've seen the one with Notre Dame on the face for $20-$40 on eBay. I've actually been tempted to start collecting these, they are quite nice. But it would make for a collection larger than my entire banknote collection if I were to try to get them all.
I have no issue with them. It's a souvenir just like anything else (but to me it would be cooler than say a postcard from the same location).
While I haven't jumped on the fantasy note bandwagon, I was intrigued with these Zero Euros at first, and was wondering what the fuss was about, but not wiling to put out the few dollars to find out for a fantasy note. However, I somehow saw that there was a couple issued referencing Santa Claus, and I looked for and bought the two I found. I had read long ago that these were printed by the same company that prints the Euro notes themselves and that the quality was high. I never bothered to check that out, because I simply didn't care - yet I had that in mind when I ordered my two Santa Claus notes. I had seen the designs online, but I thought they might be better in hand. When I finally got them, while I wasn't displeased, I certainly wasn't impressed. I was expecting something more ... but then these are modeled after the Euro, so who was I kidding!? just myself is all. They have micro printing and other security features, but the design is flat, muted, and rather non Santa-like in my opinion. I'm glad I bought them, if for no other reason than to have an example of the fantasy euro notes that have been so popular, but I don't see myself getting more of them. Based on my two examples, I don't think they're worth the few dollars to get them for my collection. - but as DDDD mentioned, I might get them as a souvenir if I traveled somewhere and they had them there. but a t-shirt would be better in my opinion. Back is the same on both notes.
Well, Oberthur is one of the euro printers - there are 14 licensed printers in the EU (though not all of them actually print the notes). And of course those souvenir notes can and do not have the same sizes, security features, etc. as the real euro bills. The look "reminds" of actual notes without imitating them. The current common reverse, by the way, is the third one. The first series (featuring monuments in France) had some "key" monuments from that country. The second series had London (Big Ben/Elizabeth Tower) too, but when the country promised to leave the EU, that was replaced by Lisbon (Torre de Belém). The first one in the city where I live was dedicated to the Tour de France which started in Düsseldorf (NW, DE) - and even though I was a "TourMaker" (local volunteer), I did not get myself any. Bummer; now they are kind of expensive ... Currently I have three: another one "from" Düsseldorf, one with Berlin Cathedral, and one that commemorates the 1889 Expo in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower under construction. That one even has an autograph by Richard Faille, from this year's World Money Fair where his company had a booth and some of those note dispensers, and he was there too. Christian
