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In the future, the 20-euro note will be coated with a special coating as standard
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / picture alliance / dpa
Anyone who gets their hands on a 20-euro note next year might be surprised for a moment: The banknotes will feel smoother because they are coated with a special coating as standard to make the banknotes more durable.
"From 2021, only coated 20-euro banknotes will be produced, so that uncoated 20-euro banknotes will gradually disappear from the cash cycle," said Bundesbank board member Johannes Beermann in Frankfurt am Main.
The five and ten of the second series of euro banknotes, which have gradually been in circulation since 2013, are also coated with a special coating.
Because it is precisely the bills with a lower value that often change hands and can become soiled or damaged more quickly and thus become unusable.
Tests have shown that the coating increases the average lifespan of the banknote, Beermann told the German press agency.
Something similar is expected from the coating on the 20 euro banknotes.
»Coated banknotes are much less susceptible to contamination.
This can also be proven in laboratory tests. "
New twenties are coming in the course of 2021
According to the Bundesbank, some central banks of the Eurosystem already started to put painted twenties into circulation on a trial basis in summer 2020.
On behalf of the Bundesbank, however, twenties with paintwork will be produced for the first time in 2021 and put into circulation over the course of the year.
It could therefore take some time before consumers in Germany hold such a varnished 20 euro banknote in their hands.
According to data from the European Central Bank (ECB), a good 4.3 billion 20-euro notes with a total value of 86.1 billion euros were in circulation in November 2020.
The fact that the monetary authorities point out the new paintwork is also important for consumers because criminals often sell the twenties as a fake.
In the first half of 2020, the number of 10 and 20 euro blooms in Germany increased, according to the Bundesbank, it was mainly print forgeries.
With around 10,000 forgeries, the twenties had a share of 29 percent of the 34,000 counterfeit bills that the police, retailers and banks withdrew from circulation in Germany in the first six months of 2020.
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ply / dpa
