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500 Euro
| Issuer | European Central Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 2002 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Euro (1999-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
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| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is executed in violet tones and presents a vignette of a modern cable-stayed bridge as the central design element, evoking 20th-century European civil engineering. A map of Europe in intaglio occupies the right-center portion of the note, with a circle of twelve EU stars arcing above it. The denomination '500 EURO / EYPO' is inscribed at the lower center, with the numeral '500' repeated at upper left and lower right. |
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| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Watermark, Security thread, Hologram |
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| Comments |
The 500 euro note has had a strange life. It entered circulation in 2002 as the highest-denomination euro banknote, but acquired an early reputation as the preferred instrument of money launderers and black-market operators — the "Bin Laden," as it was nicknamed in parts of Europe, because everyone knew it existed but few ever saw one in legitimate daily use. That reputation was not entirely unfair: studies by the ECB itself found that high-denomination notes disproportionately circulate outside the formal banking system.
In 2019, the ECB stopped issuing new 500 euro notes, though existing examples remain legal tender indefinitely. The decision was explicitly linked to financial crime concerns — an unusual public admission from a central bank that a denomination had outlived its policy usefulness.