25 MILLION euro notes destroyed?

[lmviterbo]

On the Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã, an article published on 1 May claims that "836 297 euro notes were already destroyed by Portugal National Bank".

If this information is correct for the beginning of 2005, then at least 0,25% of all notes circulating in Portugal were distroyed. Extrapolated to the whole Euro Zone population, that would mean circa 25 MILLION notes in trash bin.

I haven't found any other similar information online, at least not on the site of Banco de Portugal.

Does anyone know if there is official information about how many euro notes were destroyed, either for any particular country or for the sum of the Euro Zone?

[thomas]

Does anyone know if there is official information about how many euro notes were destroyed, either for any particular country or for the sum of the Euro Zone?

Here is the list of euro notes that have been withdrawn in Euroland last year because they were deemed unfit for circulation:

Code: Select all

EUR | Mio.
----+-----
  5 |  804
 10 | 1073
 20 | 1138
 50 |  636
100 |   99
200 |   10
500 |   10

That means that nearly 3.8 billion notes have been shreddered in 2004, about as many (3.6 bio.) as there will be printed this year - which is to be expected.

[Klazu]

Damn those are big figures, but we knew already that fivers stay in circulation for only few years. So then these figures make sense more. It's a sad thing although.

[lmviterbo]

thomas, your knowledge is great as usual!

Can you tell us what is your source?

[thomas]

Can you tell us what is your source?

The ECB :-)

[lmviterbo]

Come on, thomas, be a good sports Be a little more specific. I know it's not on the ECB: Latest figures webpage.

[Dakkus]

Does anyone know if there is official information about how many euro notes were destroyed, either for any particular country or for the sum of the Euro Zone?

Here is the list of euro notes that have been withdrawn in Euroland last year because they were deemed unfit for circulation:

Code: Select all

EUR | Mio.
----+-----
  5 |  804
 10 | 1073
 20 | 1138
 50 |  636
100 |   99
200 |   10
500 |   10

That means that nearly 3.8 billion notes have been shreddered in 2004, about as many (3.6 bio.) as there will be printed this year - which is to be expected.

So.. What's the "destruction-percentage" for each denomination?
Already this seems to prove even better it's better entering fivers than other denominations. Since they're destroyed less than tenners or twentiers, they're also printed less. And you can have them four times the amount of twentiers with the same amount of money.

[lmviterbo]

What's the "destruction-percentage" for each denomination?

Now that you mention it... The figures posted by thomas are most probably wrong. I guess it's not possible that almost 40% of all printed notes were deemed unfit for circulation and shredded! Instead of millions could it be thousands? That would match better the Portugal figures. Or else the Portuguese figures are totally wrong and thomas is right.

[thomas]

Come on, thomas, be a good sports ;) Be a little more specific.

In the August 2004 Monthly Bulletin of the ECB it is said on page 82 (left column):

In 2002 NCBs replaced 750 million unfit banknotes with new and fit ones. This represented only 9.2% of the average number of euro banknotes in circulation during that year because of the newness of the banknotes. In 2003 the total number of unfit banknotes amounted to 2,663 million, which represented 33.1% of the average number of banknotes in circulation in 2003. The denominational breakdown of the replacement of the unfit banknotes for the year 2003 is shown in Chart 3.

That's all I can say for now :-)

[lmviterbo]

Thx, thomas

Very interesting article on that bulletin, indeed. After all, your figures are correct, which makes me suspect there's something wrong on Correio da Manhã's.

Whoever might be interested on this subject may also want to check this year's ECB document on recycling banknotes.

[Elmo]

Perhaps the Portuguese National Bank destroyed 836 297 000 bills instead of
836 297 bills...

[lmviterbo]

Perhaps the Portuguese National Bank destroyed 836 297 000 bills instead of
836 297 bills...

That's what I thought at first, but then the claimed 26 million euros is wrong too...

[thomas]

The German Bundesbank seems to be very strict and to withdraw "unfit" notes very early, compared to other NCBs which let circulate very dirty notes for a longer time. Therefore, it could be that of all 7 billion detroyed notes, a large majority were sacked by the Bundesbank - not just one third, the usual German ratio of the initial production (4.8 bil. X-notes out of all 14.9 bil.; Portugal had only 0.5 bil. notes in the initial production, that is one in thirty.)

[helloggs]

Come on, thomas, be a good sports Be a little more specific. I know it's not on the ECB: Latest figures webpage.

This page is not telling you how many notes were destroyed in 2005, but it reveals some facts about life span of notes, because it tells you how many notes have been in circulation as of 03/31/05. I have simply added the numbers of the denominations produced in 2002, 03, 04 and 2005 (plus the initial production when the euro was introduced, they are also on the ECB site) and compared these with notes still in circulation:

Denomination/notes produced (in millions of notes)/notes in circulation (in millions of notes)/percentage of surviving notes

4926 1214 24.6 %
6663 1635 24.5 %
7022 1993 28.4%
6465 3182 49.2 %
1874 912 48.7 %
356 141 39.6 %
665 319 48.0 %

As one would expect, the percentage of surviving notes is lower in the small denominations. The reason that the percentage for is so low is probably that these are not used that often and therefore the NCB's don't put so many of them into circulation. A surprise to me is that the is almost that long-lasting as

The total of all bills produced is 27,971,000,000, in March there were still 9,396,000,000 notes actually in circulation, meaning that 18,575,000,000 were destroyed. The survivor's percentage of all bills is 33.6 %, so if you started tracking in 2002 you can divide your amount of entered notes by three and you have your amount of notes that actually has a chance to be found by someone.

[alex77r]

Sorry, I don't believe your numbers...

I can't believe that they destroyed 18,575,000,000 notes since the intoduction of the Euro