“A banknote is the most exchanged artwork in the world.” Paul Lester

Banknotes open a rare window to images, symbols and icons; revealing how a nation identifies itself and illustrates its representation to its citizens and to the rest of the world. The combination of images chosen to meet the practical objectives of indicating the issuing authority and denomination also reflect subjective ideas from aesthetic appeal to national identity. The results range from carefully neutral to blatantly propagandist. There is a lot to be learned from images on money but it's lost in its economic exchange.

However, all that changed with the Euro. 

Launched electronically in 1999, the Euro, is the world's first money that existed virtually before it circulated as notes and coins. Three years later, the currency metamorphosed to its tangible form as banknotes and coins, exchanged in 12 nations across Europe. The actual images on the Euro notes and coins had not only to match up to the virtual image of the Euro but also represent visually the diverse countries where it now circulated as single legal tender. 

Using content analysis and semiotics, this paper journeys through the design process of the image creation on the Euro notes and coins by researching the alternate imagery presented and considered; and examining its present-day form in its artistic visualization, its context in information dissemination and its interpretation in its imaginative representation; whilst acknowledging that money is not merely a medium of exchange but also a medium of communication.