New €20 banknote to reach Spain by late November
Tuesday, October 13, 2015 @ 11:17 PM
THE next in the series of new euro notes to come into circulation will be the €20, with the new €5 and €10 already in common use.
Spanish shops, bars and other restaurants will have until November 25 to update their systems and replace their counterfeit note-checking machinery, by which time they will have to be ready to accept the new format.
According to the European Central Bank (BCE), over 2.8 million retail establishments will receive information brochures in every Eurozone country ahead of the new €20 note launch in a month and a half.
These leaflets explain how to tell a genuine from a fake note manually if machinery is not updated in time, revealing that doing so is 'very easy'.
According to the BCE, the new banknote has a 'very distinguishable texture', and holding it up to the light will reveal a 'window' and watermark with a portrait inside, plus the silver thread which runs through existing notes.
Turning the note over will show how the silver stripe down the side contains a hologram of a portrait peering through a transparent window, and the number 20 in emerald-green produces a metallic effect which appears to move downwards.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com