Puzzle No. 18: Chain

On 1 January 1999 the euro was launched as the single currency of an initial group of European Union member states, beginning life as an electronic and accounting currency used for bank transfers, financial markets and exchange-rate calculations, while national notes and coins remained in circulation. The European Central Bank assumed responsibility for a common monetary policy across the participating economies. Three years later, on 1 January 2002, euro banknotes and coins entered circulation in twelve countries with a combined population of around 308 million, replacing long-established national currencies such as the German mark, French franc, Italian lira and Spanish peseta in one of the largest cash changeovers in history; nearly 15 billion banknotes and around 52 billion coins were produced. Adoption was swift, with the great majority of cash transactions switching to euro within weeks. The euro deepened European economic integration, eliminated exchange-rate risk within the bloc and created the world's second most important reserve currency. Its design also embedded a monetary union without a matching fiscal union, a structural tension that would become acute during the later Eurozone sovereign-debt crisis.

Read the full story · See the world in 1999 CE

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro

Before Launch of the euro