The Euro Is Getting a New Look: Inside the Competition to Redesign Europe’s Banknotes

For the first time since euro banknotes entered circulation in 2002, Europe is preparing for a completely new banknote design.

The European Central Bank (ECB) unveiled ten shortlisted design proposals in July 2026, giving the public its first detailed look at what could eventually replace the familiar euro notes currently circulating throughout Europe. The proposals range from portraits of Beethoven and Marie Curie to colorful European landscapes filled with rivers and birds.

And while the ECB is conducting its own official public survey, banknote enthusiasts online have started doing something a little different: putting the designs head-to-head. A recent Reddit competition has turned the ten proposals into a tournament-style bracket, and the community vote has now reached its final two designs.

Why Is the Euro Being Redesigned?

The redesign is about more than simply giving the euro a new appearance.

According to the ECB, periodically developing new banknote series allows central banks to introduce improved anti-counterfeiting technology. The next generation of euro notes is also intended to improve accessibility, including for people with visual impairments, while reducing the environmental impact of producing and circulating banknotes.

There is also the question of identity.

The current euro banknotes intentionally avoid portraying actual monuments or famous individuals. Instead, their architectural designs represent different periods of European architecture using fictional bridges, windows and gateways.

The next series could be dramatically different. The ECB has narrowed the redesign to two themes:

European culture and Rivers and birds.

The themes were not chosen randomly. More than 365,000 Europeans participated in an earlier public survey that helped guide the ECB toward the final concepts. The nature-related themes of rivers and birds were ultimately combined into a single proposal category.

European Culture: Famous Europeans Could Finally Appear on Euro Banknotes

Perhaps the biggest departure from today’s euro notes is the possibility of putting recognizable historical figures on the currency. Under the European culture theme, every denomination has already been assigned a particular person and cultural subject:

• €5: Maria Callas and the performing arts
• €10: Ludwig van Beethoven and music
• €20: Marie Skłodowska-Curie and education
• €50: Miguel de Cervantes and libraries
• €100: Leonardo da Vinci and museums
• €200: Bertha von Suttner and public squares

The portraits would generally appear on the fronts, while the reverses would depict Europeans participating in the corresponding cultural activity.

This would represent a major philosophical change for euro banknotes. Rather than relying on anonymous architectural styles to represent European history, the currency could directly recognize individuals whose work influenced European science, literature, music, art and culture.

Five of the ten shortlisted design sets explore variations of this concept.

Rivers and Birds: A Completely Different Direction

The other five proposals abandon famous people altogether.

Instead, Rivers and birds uses European waterways, landscapes and bird species to symbolize movement, freedom, resilience and the fact that nature does not recognize national borders.

Each denomination follows the journey of water from the mountains toward the sea:

€5: Mountain spring and wallcreeper
€10: Waterfall and kingfisher
€20: River valley and bee-eater
€50: Meandering river and white stork
€100: River mouth and avocet
€200: Seascape and northern gannet

The reverse sides incorporate major European institutions, including the European Parliament, European Commission, European Central Bank and Court of Justice of the European Union.

The result is a concept that feels considerably different from both the current euro series and many traditional world banknotes.

Ten Designs, More Than 1,200 Applicants

Getting down to these ten proposals was itself a major competition.

The ECB received more than 1,200 applications from designers across Europe. Twenty-five designers were invited to develop proposals, which were then evaluated by an independent 21-member jury with expertise ranging from graphic design and communication to neuroscience and history. Ultimately, ten complete banknote series were shortlisted.

They are identified simply as Designs A through J.

Some retain a relatively traditional horizontal banknote appearance. Others experiment with bold colors, unusual compositions and more contemporary graphic-design styles.

That variety has also made the competition particularly interesting for collectors and banknote enthusiasts. These are not simply variations of one design. Some offer fundamentally different ideas about what a modern European banknote should look like.

Reddit Put the Euro Designs Into a Tournament

Outside the official ECB process, Reddit users have been conducting their own experiment. The r/BracketFills community placed the ten proposed banknote series into a tournament bracket and allowed users to choose between competing designs over multiple rounds.

It has no connection to the ECB’s official selection process, but it provides an interesting snapshot of what banknote enthusiasts and casual observers find visually appealing. After several rounds of voting, the bracket has reached its championship matchup:

Design D vs. Design I

Interestingly, both finalists come from the Rivers and birds theme.

That means Reddit’s informal competition has already produced one notable result: none of the five European culture designs featuring famous historical personalities survived to the final.

Reddit Finalist: Design D

Design D, created by Rudy Guedj and François Girard-Meunier, presents the six birds within increasingly dramatic European landscapes.

A continuous river concept connects the denominations, beginning near its source and eventually reaching the sea. The reverse uses European institutions alongside hands, light and interconnected visual elements intended to symbolize cooperation. The design manages to combine fairly traditional banknote characteristics with much more contemporary illustration.

That balance appears to be part of its appeal. One voter in the Reddit final praised its detail and described it as having the appearance of a classic banknote while still feeling modern.

Reddit Finalist: Design I

Its opponent takes a noticeably different approach.

Design I, created by Isabelle Daëron, is built around movement.

Birds and flowing rivers connect the series, while hand-drawn and vector patterns overlap throughout the compositions. Individual birds appear prominently on the fronts, while groups of birds and landscapes help connect the imagery on the reverse.

The ECB’s contest jury described the proposal as clean, consistent and relatable, highlighting its vibrant colors and the way its natural imagery integrates with European institutions.

Reddit voters have similarly praised its cleaner appearance and the way the birds interact with the surrounding designs, although some have suggested the colors could be stronger. The final vote should provide an interesting unofficial verdict on two very different interpretations of essentially the same theme.

But Reddit Isn’t Choosing the Next Euro

The Reddit tournament is simply a community-created competition. Winning it does not mean that Design D or Design I will become Europe’s next banknotes.

The ECB is conducting its own public consultation covering all ten proposals. That survey remains open until September 21, 2026. At the same time, an independent research company is conducting a separate survey using a representative sample of euro-area citizens.

The ECB Governing Council will consider those results along with the conclusions of the design jury and a technical assessment before making the final decision. That decision is expected around the end of 2026. In other words, public opinion matters, but this is not a simple popular vote where the proposal receiving the most votes automatically wins.

Don’t Expect the New Euros Immediately

Even after a winner is selected, the new banknotes will not begin appearing in wallets overnight.

The winning design will still need additional development and testing before production can begin. The ECB says it will take several years before the new series enters circulation.

The final notes may also differ somewhat from the concepts being shown today. The ECB specifically notes that the current images are design proposals and that elements depicted in them are not guaranteed to appear exactly the same way on the finished banknotes.

Current euro banknotes will not suddenly become worthless either. The ECB says existing notes will retain their value and will continue circulating alongside the new series.

A Rare Look at How Money Is Designed

For banknote collectors, the euro redesign offers something we do not often get to see: the development of a major world currency happening almost in real time.

Instead of simply unveiling a finished banknote, the ECB has opened much of the process to the public. We can see competing concepts, compare complete denomination sets and watch debates emerge over whether currency should celebrate people, institutions, culture, nature or some combination of them.

The unofficial Reddit tournament adds another layer to that process. It does not determine Europe’s next currency, but it shows how differently people react when banknote designs are placed directly against one another.

And the Reddit finalists may already be telling us something.

Both Design D and Design I feature rivers and birds rather than famous Europeans. Whether that preference is reflected in the much larger ECB survey remains to be seen. By the end of 2026, we should know which design the European Central Bank has chosen.

Then begins the longer wait to see Europe’s newest banknotes become actual money.

---