byrnefm wrote:Curious - why have the Spanish notes been pooled all over Europe? Did they really overestimate their needs of €20s and €50s?
That's the very nature of the decentralized pooling systems. Only a few of the 12 NCB's are responsible for a given denomination, give printing orders to printers of their choice and distribute the notes to those NCB's across EuroLand which are in need of this denomination.
Spain is responsible in 2002 and 2003 for EUR20 notes, together with France, Finland and Italy in 2002 and Germany, France, The Netherlands and Potugal in 2003. Spain is also resonsible for EUR50 notes, together with Belgium and The Netherlands in 2002 and Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands in 2003.
So, it looks as if those many spanisch EUR20 notes appearing in Belgium were printed in 2002. They might even be printed earlier, for the initial production, and have been kept in the reserve, but who knows?