1 ECU

The ECU — European Currency Unit — was never legal tender anywhere. It existed as a basket currency, used in interbank settlements and for denominating certain bonds and financial instruments within the European Monetary System from 1979 onward. Générale de Banque issued this note not as circulating currency but as a commemorative piece, part of a broader promotional push by European financial institutions in the late 1980s eager to position themselves ahead of monetary integration.

Giesecke & Devrient's involvement lends it the physical credibility of a genuine banknote — security paper, proper intaglio printing — which is precisely the point. The ECU never became the euro's direct successor in name; that choice was made at the 1995 Madrid summit.