Euro Conversion Rates
The irrevocable conversion rates of the participating currencies have been fixed through a unanimous vote of the European Council. The external value of the euro corresponds to the external value of the ECU, which means that the conversion rate between them is one to one (1 [official] ecu = 1 euro).

In order to avoid speculation, the bilateral market rates (ie, cross rates) were taken as the basis for the conversion. Thus the conversion rates protect the external value of the participating currencies. Furthermore, to avoid misuse of rounding in carrying out conversions, conversion rates have six significant digits. The rates shown in the table below are the official conversion rates announced on December 31, 1998. In carrying out the conversion, only the official conversion rate will be used, but not its reciprocal value. That is, to change local currency into euro, divide by the conversion rate. The locking rate for the Greek Drachma was established on June 19, 2000, in preparation for Greece's entry into the Euro zone on January 1, 2001.

The Euro Symbol

The dollar, the pound, and the yen all have symbols to denote their currency. A new symbol has been created for the euro: a stylized e, with two dashes instead of one in the middle. It is usually displayed in yellow colour on a blue background: . It is shown in the top left corner of this page. A PostScript version as well as an enlarged GIF version are available from PACIFIC.

Microsoft is gearing up to include the new euro symbol in its software, in particular, Word 97. For more information, see their page with download instructions for typography patch on the euro symbol. The symbol is already in Windows 98 and Windows NT 5. Corel's WordPerfect version 8 already has the euro symbol in its set of typographic symbols.

Adobe Software has developed the character for free and shares the results with the public. For more information, see their web page on free downloadable Euro symbol fonts for more details.

The New Coins and Bills

One euro corresponds to 100 cents or euro-cents. (Each nation may call the sub-unit "cent" whatever they wish; so presumably there will be an euro-pfennig in Germany and an euro-centimes in France.) There will be eight different coins and seven different banknotes.

Coins	Size	Appearance
1 Euro Cent	Diam. 16.25 mm	Front	Back
2 Euro Cent	Diam. 18.75 mm	Front	Back
5 Euro Cent	Diam. 21.75 mm	Front	Back
10 Euro Cent	Diam. 19.75 mm	Front	Back
20 Euro Cent	Diam. 22.25 mm	Front	Back
50 Euro Cent	Diam. 24.25 mm	Front	Back
1 Euro	Diam. 23.25 mm	Front	Back
2 Euro	Diam. 25.75 mm	Front	Back
Bills	Size	Appearance
5 Euro	120mm x 62mm	Front	Back
10 Euro	127mm x 67mm	Front	Back
20 Euro	133mm x 72mm	Front	Back
50 Euro	140mm x 77mm	Front	Back
100 Euro	147mm x 82mm	Front	Back
200 Euro	153mm x 82mm	Front	Back
500 Euro	160mm x 82mm	Front	Back