Pre-Euro Nations/Series (Years) To Collect

The deadline for exchanging Spanish peseta banknotes for Euros is 31 December this year. After that date, peseta notes are likely to be cheaper, but there may be fewer available.

Spanish notes retained the same date and signature for the lifetime of the design. However, the first 9,999,999 of any design are always prized by collectors and are more valuable: they just have a serial number with no prefix. Notes with just a letter prefix - like the 100-peseta note illustrated - are worth a smaller premium, whereas notes with a number and letter prefix, like 2J 436795 - are the most common and least valuable.


With French notes, there are usually numerous signature and date varieties for each design. Generally the first and last dates of each design are worth more than 'mid-life' notes. The types in circulation immediately before the introduction of the Euro are now widely available at below face value. My personal favorites are the 1960s series with Pasteur, Hugo, Racine, Corneille and Pascal: attractive colourful notes where the portrait on one side is shown reversed on the other. Until the mid-1970s bank clerks often kept bundles of notes together with pins, so otherwise EF and AU notes frequently have a few pin holes.

The above Berlioz 10-franc note has quite a common date, but one dated 6 December 1973 is catalogued at €400 in Uncirculated!

I think the notes of Lithuania are attractive and I collected the set when I was there but I had to break the high denomination for a taxi ride between to cities and so it was missing for a long time... when I wanted to purchase it I couldn't find any of them cheap presumably because they are still bankable.

I have some Greek notes from circulation when I holidayed there more than 25 years ago. The notes in Circulation were extremely tatty though so even though I have a stack of these notes none are crispy.

Also, for a second there, I thought that was Johnny Depp on the Lithuania note.

Okay, got this French 500 Francs:
& then went on to buy this 5 Lira from Cyprus:

& from Malta:
So just picked up this 5 Lats from Latvia:



I know this is probably a pretty old subject/trend but anyone else buying pre-Euro or Euro banknotes?

-Thanks 'NumisRob' (1000 posts? Already? )




I can relate to this sentiment (& I only stayed in Quebec for a few months!) You convinced me (in your earlier post) of the beauty of the French banknote designs so I found myself falling for this 1991 P-154f 100 Francs:

Very nice!