0 Euro - Budatinsky Hrad

Budatínsky hrad, a medieval water castle at the confluence of the Váh and Kysuca rivers in northwestern Slovakia, is the subject of this 2022 EuroSouvenir issue — one of hundreds of zero-denomination collector pieces produced under a scheme that deliberately mimics the visual grammar of circulating euro banknotes without holding any legal tender status. Oberthur Fiduciaire, which prints genuine currency for multiple central banks, produces the entire EuroSouvenir series using security printing substrates, giving these notes a feel indistinguishable from real banknotes to the untrained hand.

The EuroSouvenir program operates with ECB tolerance but no formal endorsement — a distinction that has prompted occasional regulatory friction in several eurozone states.