At the end of April 2019, Europe's central banks issued the last 500 euro bills. Since then, the largest euro note has officially been phased out. Because, according to the currency watchdogs, the purple paper is all too often used for illegal transactions and as black money. The notes remain valid, but are gradually withdrawn as they circulate.
However, this is sluggish, as a response from the Ministry of Finance to a request from the financial policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Markus Herbrand, shows. In July, 273,912,924 notes were still in circulation - out of a total of 348,310,791 notes issued by the Bundesbank.
The monetary value fell from a good 174 billion to almost 137 billion euros. There are also a good 84,000 notes issued by other European central banks. This means that in just under three years, around 20 percent of all 500 euro notes in circulation have ended up at the Bundesbank.
These banknotes are now protected from possible use by organized crime, said Herbrand WELT AM SONNTAG: "The basic idea of stopping the new issue of 500 euro notes to make terrorist financing, money laundering and undeclared work more difficult is correct, and we are allowed to." Therefore, we cannot rest on our laurels, but must continue to promote simple and uncomplicated exchanges.” Many banknote holders do not know that the issuance has been stopped.
The banknote continues to be valid indefinitely, as do all the other notes in the first series of euro notes, which have now been replaced with new motifs. Due to inflation, the 500 euro banknotes are now worth less than when they were first issued in 2002. Based on the purchasing power of the time, it is only around 360 euros.
