Codes in Eurobills

Facts/News about the Euro can be posted here

Moderators: Phaseolus, Fons

smh
Euro-Regular
Euro-Regular
Posts: 216
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2002 10:57 pm

Post by smh »

Last edited by smh on Sun Jul 20, 2003 11:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
EuroBillTracker
Euro-Expert
Euro-Expert
Posts: 704
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2002 2:53 pm
Location: Paris, France
Contact:

Post by EuroBillTracker »

smh wrote: But it's still pretty easy to generate your own serial numbers. Do you have other checks to check if a bill is real? eg, with the short codes :?:
Yes you are correct, I have started mining the data from the database, using people I know (and therefore trust) but there seems to be no clear relationship between the short code, the value and the serial number :(

Webmaster
molenari

serial number in old Dutch banknotes

Post by molenari »

The serial number check was already used in the old 10 Gulden banknote in the Netherlands. I mean the banknote with Frans Hals on it. It was in use since 1971. If you added all the numbers of the serialnr together you got a two digit numer. For instance: 45. If you added those together the outcome was always '9'. This info I got from a Eurobilltracker-look-a-like in the Netherlands that was only used for 10 Gulden bills:

http://www.wheresthemoney.nl/

Unfortunately this site was very badly maintained so people could enter fake notes and such. The site still seems to exist like the Gulden is still there.

When getting new 10 Gulden bills (the "IJsvogel", used since 1997) from a money machine the numbers would always exactly follow each other. When a friend of me noted that when getting brand new Eurobills from the money machine there were always 9 numbers in between he got suspicious and tried the old 10-Gulden trick. It worked! Every Euro-country seems to have it's own security-check-number.
esperantisto

the system

Post by esperantisto »

And the numbers are not just randomly assigned:

First you list the countries in alphabetical order of two-letter code.
(Greece will be an exception here, for good reason)
Z = [be] = Belgium = 0
Y = [el] = Greece = 1
X = [de] = Germany = 2
W = [dn] = Denmark = 3 -- not currently being used
V = [es] = Spain = 4
U = [fr] = France = 5
T = [ie] = Ireland = 6
S = [it] = Italy = 7
R = [lu] = Luxemburg = 8 -- not currently being used
Q -- not used because it is too similar to 0 = 0
P = [nl] = Netherlands = 1
O -- not used because it is too similar to 0 = 2
N = [os] = Austria = 3
M = [pt] = Portugal = 4
L = [sf] = Finland = 5
K = [sw] = Sweden = 6 -- not currently being used
J = [uk] = UK = 7 -- not currently being used
I -- not used because it is too similar to 1 = 8
<thus the first ascention country to join the Euro should get: H = 0>

Greece had to get Y since it needed a letter which was the same in both alphabets.
Thierry

Post by Thierry »

Then why is 9 not used between 8 and 0?
Thierry

Post by Thierry »

And Why is Luxemburg(=R=8) not being used? It is joining the euro, isn't it?
Thierry

Post by Thierry »

Thierry wrote: And Why is Luxemburg(=R=8) not being used? It is joining the euro, isn't it?
Ok I meant Luxemburg [=R,=8]
esperantisto
Euro-Regular in Training
Euro-Regular in Training
Posts: 108
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2002 3:17 pm
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Post by esperantisto »

9 = 0 casting out nines. You can replace every reference to 0 as a reference to 9.
As to Luxemburg: they are in the Eurozone, but they don't make their own bills. The ECB said that the R code is not being used - but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
madj
Euro-Newbie
Euro-Newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Mar 21, 2002 2:52 pm
Location: Sweden

Strange two-letter codes - odd european standard?

Post by madj »

Esperantisto, where did you get those two letter codes? The only official codes i know of is:
ISO 3letter (eg at sporting events: GER = germany)
ISO 2letter (eg URL domains: www.boc.de, currencies: DEM )
UN 1-3 letter (used on car ovals and plates: D = germany)

Country - ISO2L - UN:
Austria - AT - A
Belgium - BE - B
Germany - DE - D
Denmark - DK - DK
Spain - ES - E
Finland - FI - FIN
France - FR - F
United Kingdom - GB (UK) - GB
Greece - GR - GR
Ireland - IE - IRL
Italy - IT - I
Luxembourg - LU - L
Netherlands - NL - NL
Portugal - PT - P
Sweden - SE - S
[/list]
EuroBillTracker
Euro-Expert
Euro-Expert
Posts: 704
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2002 2:53 pm
Location: Paris, France
Contact:

Strange two-letter codes - odd european standard?

Post by EuroBillTracker »

madj wrote: Esperantisto, where did you get those two letter codes?
They look like internet domains to me. Am I right ?
User avatar
Craco
Forum Administrator
Forum Administrator
Posts: 488
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2002 12:23 pm
Location: Belgium, Beringen
Contact:

Strange two-letter codes - odd european standard?

Post by Craco »

EuroBillTracker wrote:
madj wrote: Esperantisto, where did you get those two letter codes?
They look like internet domains to me. Am I right ?
I don't think so, but i might be wrong but is the internet domain not for
Denmark = dk
Austria = at
Finland = fi ?
Sweden = se ?

Greetzz,
User avatar
pinguino79
Euro-Expert in Training
Euro-Expert in Training
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2002 5:44 pm
Location: Vicenza, Italy, EU

Post by pinguino79 »

Here's what I know about letter assignment: the order is not given by 2 letters code, but by the coutry name in their language. The list is:
United Kingdom
Sverige (Sweden)
Suomi (Finland)
Portugal
Oesterreich (Austria)
Nederland
Luxembourg
Italia
Ireland
France
Espana
Ellàda (Greece)
Deutschland
Danmark
Belgie/Belgique

Sorry, I'm too lazy to get all the special characters :P
As already said, Danmark and Greece were swapped
byrnefm
Euro-Regular in Training
Euro-Regular in Training
Posts: 66
Joined: Thu Mar 28, 2002 10:01 am
Location: Dublin, Ireland

Post by byrnefm »

I wonder why the ECB uses the number check between each note? It is easy to create a serial number with a correct check tally! :)

Also, I notice that while the Irish notes go up in increments of 9, no serial number ends in zero - if I get bills from an ATM and one ended in ...11, the next would be ...29, not 20! Is this common throughout the eurozone?
User avatar
ag_pt
Euro-Regular
Euro-Regular
Posts: 169
Joined: Thu May 16, 2002 2:37 pm
Location: Lisboa, Portugal (38º44'N 9º12'W)

Post by ag_pt »

All portuguese notes sum 49 or 58 (checksum is therefore 4) :D
User avatar
Donald
Euro-Master
Euro-Master
Posts: 3627
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2002 8:02 pm
Location: Geilenkirchen

Post by Donald »

byrnefm wrote:Also, I notice that while the Irish notes go up in increments of 9, no serial number ends in zero - if I get bills from an ATM and one ended in ...11, the next would be ...29, not 20! Is this common throughout the eurozone?
It is exactly the same with German notes.
Post Reply

Return to “Euro-Notes and Coins Board”