
The euro is the primary currency for the sixteen countries of the European Union or the euro zone. These sixteen countries include Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Portugal, Netherlands, Malta, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Germany, France, Finland, Cyprus, Belgium and Austria. As one can see, some of the most prominent nations on earth use the euro as their primary currency. Moreover, it is also prominent in the African nations and more than 170 million people around the world use currencies which are pegged or based on euro. Hence, one can see the range and popularity of this currency. In fact, this currency is considered to be as the second most popular – the largest of the reserve currencies other than the US dollar. The name of this currency was officially decided in the December of 1995 and its introduction in the world markets was done on the first of January, 1999. The banknotes and coins were circulated in the market on 1 January, 2002.
The foreign exchange market depends a lot on this country because people from a number of countries have the euro as their main currency and they use it to exchange to other currencies. Due to the fact that it is used in so many countries and its strong recent money trends some also view it to as ‘The Almighty Euro’. One finds that online currency converters, such as Yahoo, XE and the Pound to Euro Converter, have a high percentage of their calculations depending on the euro. On the surveys of June 2010, it was seen that more than eight hundred billion euro have been in circulation through coins and notes and this has made it the largest circulated currency throughout the world.
The Euro has one of the highest value notes in circulation, with the 500 Euro denominated bill. It ranks third, behind only the Swiss 1000 Franc note and the Singaporean 1000 dollar note. In comparison, the largest notes in the US are $100 bills, and in the UK £50 notes. This makes the 500 Euro bill a high multiple of the largest notes of most other countries. Such classification of the 500 Euro note, means that it has the dubious distinction of becoming the world’s favourite note of criminal organizations! The high value of the note means that it is ideal for money laundering, as higher values can be concealed in smaller containers than compared to dollars or pounds – combined with the fact that Euros are a common currency to exchange. The note has even gained the nickname as the ‘Bin Ladin’, likened to the terrorist mastermind, as you know it’s out there, you know what it looks like, it moves around a lot but no-one ever sees it. In fact the note has now been banned and withdrawn from exchange in the UK, as the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) found that 90% of the 500 Euro notes were being used for i
llegal activities! This could trigger the end of days for the note, as happened to the now extinct 1000 Canadian dollar note.
By using a prominent exchange rate converter such as the Pound to Euro Converter, an individual can check how the euro fares among other currencies. One can see by its impact, performance and ranking in online currency converters like the Pound to Euro Converter and other currency-devoted sites and also the number of nations using this currency, that this is one of the, if not the, most prominent currencies in the world. Most forex traders are keeping tabs on this currency as it is being upheld by the markets of so many countries and involves such large volumes of trade daily.