Euro
The Euro is the official currency of the European Union, and is used by 18 of the 28 member stares: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain, as well as Lithuania from January 2015. The euro is also used in Kosovo, Montenegro and Zimbabwe, and a few other non-EU countries such as Andorra, Monaco and San Marino. It is the second largest reserve currency in the world, and the second-most traded, both after the US dollar.
The ISO code for the euro is EUR, and the currency symbol is "€", which is simply a stylised lower case "e". One euro is split into 100 cents, and the name "euro" was adopted in December 1995, replacing the European Currency Unit just over four years later. Coins and notes were placed into circulation on 1 January 2002.
Euro history
A unified European currency has been a goal of the European Union and the organisations that preceded it since the 1960s. Despite stringent opposition from the United Kingdom, the Maastricht Treaty which defined the European monetary and economic union in came into force in 1993, with the provision that all EU states would form part of this union by 1999, although the UK and Denmark were eventually allowed to retain their own currencies.
The euro was introduced at midnight on 1, January 1999 as a virtual currency, from which date transactions could be made in euros using electronic transfers and banking, even though no notes or coins existed. The currencies of all participating European nations were frozen and linked at a fixed rate to the new currency. All the existing currencies were gradually phased out over the next three years, with euro coins and notes phased in to replace them during the same period. At the end of February, 2002, the former currencies ceased to be legal tender.
The EU has continued to expand over time, with more countries joining the union, such as Slovenia in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011 and Latvia in 2014.
Euro coins were first issued in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 cents, and 1 and 2 euros. The coins are minted at various sites all across Europe. The notes that are issued are 5, 10, 30, 50, 100, 200 and 500 euros, and were designed by Austrian Robert Kalina, who chose to represent a series of European bridges to symbolise the links being built by the euro between the separate member states of the EU.
Euro today
Today, one Euro is worth around £0.85, or $1.30.
One British Pound is worth around €1.25, while one US dollar is worth around €0.75.
The euro is the third-most accepted currency at online casinos, behind the US dollar and the British pound. Not only are players usually completely free to fund their accounts in euros, they are also able to play in euros at many of the top online casino sites and poker rooms.