Amsterdam Hotspots - the guide to Amsterdam city

The Euro

The Euro is the new European unit of currency. The euro is used in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Greece. On January 1, 2002, these European Union Member States replaced local currency with euro notes and coins.

EUR is the official abbreviation for the euro, just as USD is the abbreviation for the American dollar and GBP means pound sterling. The symbol for euro is €, rather like an E with 2 horizontal lines across it; it was inspired by the Greek letter epsilon, the first letter of the word "Europe."

Until January 1st 2002 the currency used was the Dutch guilder, symbol 'f', 'fl', 'dfl' or 'nlg'. 1 Euro = 2,20371 Dutch guilders.

Bills
There are 7 Euro bills in denominations of 500, 200, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5 euros:

The size of the bills varies by denomination. Bills shown are not actual size.

Coins
There are 8 Euro coins in denominations of 2 euro, 1 euro, 50 euro cent, 20 euro cent, 10 euro cent, 5 euro cent, 2 euro cent, and 1 euro cent:

The coins shown are not actual size.