[crote]

I feel like the design guidelines were fundamentally flawed, and as a logical result none of the design proposals are better than what we already have.

The whole "some person's face" thing doesn't work because most people won't be familiar with them. Heck, you'd be lucky if the average person is familiar with their names! The birds & buildings suffer from the same issue: never seen them, can't identify them, don't care about them. And because it references real-world things there's a very genuine risk of people being upset over being underrepresented, or the person or institution being depicted getting disgraced.

What's left is the "vague depictions of people doing random things" theming, but that's neither European nor meaningful nor distinctive. You forget about it the second you stop looking at it.

The previous two series - depicting bridge types and building styles - neatly bypassed this by being something everyone could relate to, while at the same time not referencing anything specific-enough that anyone could be upset about it. Especially the first series nailed this down perfectly.

Given the mediocre design proposals we're now left with, I think Design J is the obvious best choice. It is not actively ugly, and the various bills are at least distinct enough that they are easy to tell apart. Design H isn't too bad, but the building side is just "generic glass blob in a distance" rather than anything one would remember and recognize.

[Someone]

> The whole "some person's face" thing doesn't work because most people won't be familiar with them.

There’s millennia of history of having coins and paper money faces that most people will not be familiar with.

> The previous two series - depicting bridge types and building styles - neatly bypassed this by being something everyone could relate to,

I don’t see much difference there. Just as many people can’t see more than “man with beard” or “bird with long legs”, I bet many people can’t seen more than “old bridge” or “modern bridge” for the current designs (what fraction of the population can discriminate the €5 ‘classical’ from the €10 ‘romanesque’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes)?)

[sznio]

I think the whole original bridge and doorway was representing the whole idea of the Euro. The bridge between various nations, the doorway into a larger market.

As the EU is slowly growing beyond just economical ties I assume it tries to form a pan-european identity, hence why some famous European people. And Skłodowska to entice the Poles to drop their currency and finally join the Eurozone.

I still don't know who is it that they placed on the 5€ banknote

[IlikeMadison]

>there's a very genuine risk of people being upset over being underrepresented

Explain yourself. Who the hell could feel upset upon seeing Marie Curie, Beethoven, da Vinci or Maria Callas? They are all very recognizable, well known European figures with astounding achievements and highly respected by any true European worth its name.

Are you suggesting we should erase them because of someone's feeling?

[pibaker]

Well, the old Euro design avoided making references to specific countries and chose to use generic images of bridges for a reason. You can only put so many faces on your currency. You can't choose any set of faces without people from some countries being left out. And if you leave any country out, you are just handing munition to Eurosceptics in that country to fire at Brussels — "dear citizens, don't you feel the EU is really just about Germany and France? See, the money you spend everyday does not even bear the image of our countrymen!"

You can of course say people should just grow up and not be affected by petty sentimental arguments like this. But keep in mind, the EU is as much an economical and political project as it is a cultural project. You have to win people's hearts. And you do so by not making them feel neglected.

[tomp]

I've never heard of Maria Callas before. Especially ridiculous because she was born in the US and Wikipedia describes her as American and Greek.

[jchallis]

As an American who proudly claims her watch “O mio bambino caro” on YouTube. I’d recognize her version anytime. Angelic.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l1C8NFDdFYg&ra=m