The European Central Bank announced today (4th April) that the new €50 banknote in the current "Europa" series has been officially released for circulation. The new banknote was unveiled at theheadquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) on the 5th July 2016, when ECB executive member Yves Mersch introduced the note's new security features and amended design. The current "Europa" serieswas first introduced in 2014 with the re-design of the €5 banknote. According to the ECB, the re-designed series includes "the countries that have joined the EU since 2002. For instance, the map ofEurope shows Malta and Cyprus, "euro" is written in Cyrillic in addition to the Latin and Greek alphabets, and the initials of the ECB appear in ten-instead of five-linguistic variants."

The new ECB notes' integrated, revised security features include a portrait window depicting an image of Europa on both sides of the note; the window becomes transparent when held against a light.A hologram strip contains images of the number 50, another image of Europa, and the primary architectural design of the €50 note. Additional, enhanced security features also include a printed"emerald" number, which displays an effect of the light moving up and down when the note is tilted. Raised print assists the visually impaired.

The €50 is the most widely used euro-banknote denomination. With over 9 billion of them in circulation, they account for 46% of all euro banknotes. The €50 banknotes of the first series willremain legal tender and continue to circulate alongside the new notes. The first-series €50 note will be gradually withdrawn from circulation but is always redeemable at the offices of central andnational banks and commercial banks within the eurozone, presently without time limit.

The European Central Bank have announced that new €100 and €200 "Europa" series banknotes will be issued at the beginning of 2019.

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European Union: New €50 "Europa" series banknote issued today(http://news.coinupdate.com/european-union-new-e50-europa-series-banknote-issued-today/)