0-euro notes : 0 a. Introduction

Although postal services do their utmost to innovate and deliver high quality stamps (with lots of extra's), snail mail is not that cool anymore.
Stamp collecting - unfortunately - isn't florishing among youngsters and starting up a collection is not easy. Year sets nowadays cost a fortune, and only the patient ones (or the rich) can afford a complete collection.

Banknotes and coins are as interesting to collect, but with electronic payment methods, even  'cash money' is dissapearing from daily life. When Europe switched to Euro-currency, all national currencies dissapeared and along with it, also the wide variety in banknotes and coins.
Luckily the 2-euro coins opened a new range of collecting possibilities;

Since 2015 a new collectors' item has seen daylight.

What started as a way to promote touristic locations in France, soon became a new way to attract collectors and touristic sites. The 0-euro banknote was born.
Face value is ... 0, a piece of paper that promotes a touristic site or event, such as the Eiffel tower, the Pisa tower, the Sagrada Familia ....

These collective notes with themes from all over Europe are often made in a limited edition (5.000 or 10.000). The notes are printed at the official Euro bank note printers and contain all the usual elements and security features of the euro notes.
The designer of the original Euro notes is also the man behind the 0-euro notes, the Austrian designer Robert Kalina.

Robert Kalina - picture ECB

Every year, new sites are added, new countries are joining, and even previous issues are being re-issued.
Before I go deeper into some specific notes, a small overview of returning items on each note.

Nearly each note has a European flag in the design.
Those notes are printed in Europe (even those from China, Canada, USA ...)

0 euro note France

0 euro note Vatican city

0 euro note USA

 One exception ... the 0-euro notes printed in Switzerland have a Swiss flag.

Since the notes are printed by the official banknote printers, they bare the same serial number system as the euro notes.
see my previous post : https://rainbowstampsandcoins.blogspot.com/2012/08/banknotes-security-marks-2b-part-2.html

U : France

S : Italy (here Vatican City)

For countries outside the Euro-zone, another land code is used :

Swiss serial number (CH ...)

Chinese serial number (CN ...)

Peru serial number (PR ...)

to be continued...