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Euro coins and banknotes

Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment.

Money was historically an emergent market phenomenon that possessed intrinsic value as a commodity; nearly all contemporary money systems are based on unbacked fiat money without use value. Its value is consequently derived by social convention, having been declared by a government or regulatory entity to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country, for "all debts, public and private", in the case of the United States dollar.

The money supply of a country comprises all currency in circulation (banknotes and coins currently issued) and, depending on the particular definition used, one or more types of bank money (the balances held in checking accounts, savings accounts, and other types of bank accounts). Bank money, whose value exists on the books of financial institutions and can be converted into physical notes or used for cashless payment, forms by far the largest part of broad money in developed countries. (Full article...)

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A £5 note (White fiver) forged by Sachsenhausen concentration camp prisoners

Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War. The first phase was run from early 1940 by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) under the title Unternehmen Andreas (Operation Andreas). The unit successfully duplicated the rag paper used by the British, produced near-identical engraving blocks and deduced the algorithm used to create the alpha-numeric serial code on each note. The unit closed in early 1942 after its head, Alfred Naujocks, fell out of favour with his superior officer, Reinhard Heydrich.

The operation was revived later in the year; the aim was changed to forging money to finance German intelligence operations. Instead of a specialist unit within the SD, prisoners from Nazi concentration camps were selected and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp to work under SS Major Bernhard Krüger. The unit produced British notes until mid-1945; estimates vary of the number and value of notes printed, from £132.6 million up to £300 million. By the time the unit ceased production, they had perfected the artwork for US dollars, although the paper and serial numbers were still being analysed. The counterfeit money was laundered in exchange for money and other assets. Counterfeit notes from the operation were used to pay the Turkish agent Elyesa Bazna—code named Cicero—for his work in obtaining British secrets from the British ambassador in Ankara, and £100,000 from Operation Bernhard was used to obtain information that helped to free the Italian leader Benito Mussolini in the Gran Sasso raid in September 1943. (Full article...)

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The one hundred euro note (€100) is one of the higher value euro banknotes and has been used since the introduction of the euro (in its cash form) in 2002. The note is used in the 25 countries (and Kosovo) that have adopted the euro as their sole currency, representing some 350 million people. In July 2024, there was an estimated 3,987,000,000 hundred euro banknotes in circulation in the eurozone. The note is the third most widely-circulated denomination, accounting for 13.3% of the total banknotes.

The design of the Europa series 100 euro banknote was revealed on 17 September 2018 and launched on 28 May 2019. (Full article...)

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... that the façade of the Brooklyn Central Library was removed in an attempt to save money?
... that the Gould Memorial Library once hosted pie-throwing contests to raise money?
... that a Virginia radio station built a house to raise money for operations?
... that Starbucks raised money for HIV/AIDS research using their red holiday cups?
... that placekicker Cam Little donated money to a Down syndrome organization for every field goal he made?
... that Russian indie artist polnalyubvi bought her first guitar with money earned from busking with her violin?
... that medievalist Edward Rand rang the doorbell of Harvard president Charles William Eliot and asked him: "I would like to go to Harvard; do you have any money?"
... that Frankie Saluto was a member of the Ringling Giants, a dwarf baseball team that raised money for charity?

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The following are images from various currency-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A 1914 British gold sovereign (from Money)
Image 2Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, reverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 3Ancient Jewish coin, engraved menorah, from the Hasmoneon kingdom 37-40 BCE (from Money)
Image 4Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 5President J. K. Paasikivi illustrated in a former Finnish 10 mark banknote from 1980 (from Money)
Image 6Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 7A hoard of mostly Mauryan punch-marked coins (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 8US dollar banknotes (from Money)
Image 9Sino Tibetan silver tangka, dated 58th year of Qian Long era, obverse. Weight 5.57 g. Diameter: 30 mm (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 10Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 11Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 12Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, reverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 13Paper money from different countries (from Money)
Image 14Tibetan undated silver tangka, struck in 1953/54, obverse. (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 15Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 16Money Base, M1 and M2 in the U.S. from 1981 to 2012 (from Money)
Image 17Tibetan undated silver tangka (2nd half of 18th century) with eight times the syllable "dza" in vartula script, reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 18Silver, ½ Karshapana coin, “Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (450 BC - 315 BC) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 19Banknotes of different currencies with a face value of 5000 (from Money)
Image 20Tibetan silver tangka with Ranjana (Lantsa) script, dated 15-28 (= AD 1894), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 21A 640 BC one-third stater electrum coin from Lydia. According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins. It is thought by modern scholars that these first stamped coins were minted around 650 to 600 BC. (from Money)
Image 22Undated Kelzang tangka (1910), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 23Huizi currency, issued in 1160 (from Money)
Image 24Tibetan "gaden" Tangka, undated (ca. AD 1840), reverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 25“Babyal Hoard” type, of the Kuru Janapada (350 - 315 BCE) (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 26Printing paper money at a printing press in Perm (from Money)
Image 27Tenga of Muhammad Khudayar Khan, struck at the Kokand mint, dated 1862–1863 (from Kokand tenga)
Image 28Banknotes and coins (from Money)
Image 29Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money (from Money)
Image 30A check, used as a means of converting funds in a demand deposit to cash (from Money)
Image 31A person counts a bundle of different Swedish banknotes. (from Money)
Image 32Punch-marked coins discovered from Chandraketugarh. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 33Tibetan kong par tangka, dated 13-45 (= AD 1791), obverse (from Tibetan tangka)
Image 34"Bent bar" of the Gandhara Janapda unearthed with Achaemenid and Greek coins, Gandhara, c.350 BC. (from Punch-marked coins)
Image 35Gold coins are an example of legal tender that are traded for their intrinsic value, rather than their face value. (from Money)