201210 years of the euro - Set

Euro banknotes and coins were put into circulation on 1 January 2002 and have become the legal currency in countries of the euro zone, presently numbering 17.
The European Monetary Institute, the predecessor of the ECB (European Central Bank), launched a graphics contest in February 1996. The proposals submitted were evaluated by a jury of independent experts in marketing, style and art history and were the subject of a market survey. Based on the results, the Council of the Monetary Institute chose the winning proposal in December 1996, a series of graphics based on the theme “Eras and styles in Europe” presented by Robert Kalina, a graphic artist at the Austrian National Bank in Vienna.
Unlike the euro banknotes, which are identical in every country of the euro zone, the coins have a “European” and a “national” side.
They bear the symbols of the participating countries and represent the unity of the EU. It was Luc Luycx, of the Monnaie Royale de Belgique, who won the European contest organised to select the graphical elements for the European sides, which also indicate the value of the coin.
Production of euro banknotes began in July 1999 at fifteen printers of the European Union. On 1 January 2002, an initial supply of 14.9 billion notes – enough to cover an area of 15,000 football fields – was printed for the twelve countries of the euro zone. About 52 billion coins, with a face value of 15.75 billion euros, were minted in sixteen European mints, requiring 250,000 tonnes of metal.