Which country’s genius deserves the €200 note?

Money caniouecb look like just about anything. In ancient China, bronze knives circulated as a means of payment; during the Depression, Californians used clamshells instead of cash; in 1970 Irish shoppers were forced, by a banking strike, to make do with s written on toilet paper. As Hyman Minsky, an economist, put it: “Anyone can create money; the problem is getting it accepted.”Europeans will soon need to accept a new-look euro. A European Central Bank () survey, which closed at the end of August, asked respondents to choose between seven themes, varying from “hands: together we build Europe” to “rivers, the water of life in Europe” and “our Europe, ourselves”. A design contest will now follow, and updated euros will emerge from cash machines in 2026.