Europeans Can Now Vote on the First Redesign of Euro Cash Since 2002, Choosing Between Cultural Figures and River Birds

For the first time since euro notes entered wallets in 2002, Europeans are being asked to help choose what the currency looks like. The European Central Bank (Banco Central Europeu, ECB) has published ten finalist designs for a new series of banknotes and opened a public vote that runs until 21 September.

ECB President Christine Lagarde presented the shortlist this month, the product of a European Union-wide competition that drew more than 1,200 entries from graphic designers. An independent jury of 21 specialists — drawn from graphic design, communication, neuroscience and history — narrowed the field to two competing themes, each with its own visual language.

Culture or nature

The first theme, "European Culture", puts faces on the notes: figures such as the soprano Maria Callas, the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, the scientist Marie Curie, the writer Miguel de Cervantes, the polymath Leonardo da Vinci and the peace campaigner Bertha von Suttner, the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The second, "Rivers and Birds", turns to the natural world, featuring species such as the kingfisher and the white stork — a bird familiar to anyone who has watched them nest atop Portuguese church towers and chimneys.

Residents can register their preference through a form on the ECB's website until 21 September. In parallel, an independent polling firm will put the same questions to a representative sample of people across the euro area, so that the final read on public opinion is not skewed by who happens to find the online survey.

A decision years in the making

The vote is one input, not the verdict. The ECB says the final choice will come towards the end of 2026 and will weigh the design jury's conclusions, a technical assessment of how easily each design can be produced and secured against counterfeiting, and the results of both surveys.

Even then, cash will not change overnight. New notes are only expected to begin circulating in the early 2030s, rolled out gradually denomination by denomination, so the familiar bridges-and-windows notes designed by Robert Kalina will remain legal tender and in daily use for years. The €500 note, withdrawn from issuance in 2019, will stay discontinued under the new series.

For Portugal, a country where cash still matters for many everyday transactions despite the near-universal spread of the Multibanco card network, the exercise is a rare invitation to shape a piece of shared European infrastructure. Whether shoppers in Lisbon and Porto end up handing over notes bearing Marie Curie's portrait or a kingfisher in flight now depends, in part, on how many of them click through and vote before the September deadline.