THE STORY BEHIND THE EURO SYMBOL

As one of the world's newest currencies, the euro's decades-long gestation and protracted birth have been meticulously documented. It's a story of meetings, negotiations, treaties and yet more meetings, its cast comprised almost exclusively of politicians and civil servants. The kind of yarn, in other words, likely to set only the pulse of an economic historian racing. Altogether more mysterious – and contested – is how the euro acquired the sign by which it's known around the world.

The new currency's name was chosen in Madrid in 1995. Allegedly the suggestion of a Belgian teacher and Esperanto buff, "euro" triumphed over a string of other contenders, including the irresistibly Shakespearean "ducat". A crucial consideration was that the name must be the same in all of Europe's official languages, and uniformity was deemed vital for the sign that would represent it too.

Unlike older currency signs that have evolved organically over centuries, the euro sign was designed by committee. The brief comprised three key elements: it must be a highly recognisable symbol of Europe, it had to echo well-known existing currency symbols, and it needed to be aesthetically pleasing and simple to write by hand. It fell to European Commission staff to compile a list of more than 30 possible designs. These were then whittled down to 10 and submitted to the public. Two designs emerged ahead of the rest, and it was left to then President of the European Commission Jacques Santer and Yves-Thibault de Silguy, the commissioner in charge of economic and financial affairs, to choose between them.

When the selected symbol was unveiled in December 1996, it was applauded by the now defunct newspaper The European as being "precise and confident, like a post-modern pretzel". Elsewhere, it caused confusion. A ‘C' bisected by two horizontal bars? Well, no, it was actually inspired by the Greek letter epsilon. A reference to the cradle of European civilisation, it emphasised historical continuity – as the design of the banknotes themselves would do – while also evoking an ‘E' for Europe. The classical connection came to seem decidedly ironic when, in 2010, Greece's bailout crisis threatened the stability of the entire eurozone. Just as well those two parallel lines running through its centre signify stability.

Curiously, it's now all but impossible to trace the symbol that was runner-up in the popularity contest. It must exist in a Brussels vault, but search online and it's as if the euro symbol was ever-destined to take its current form.

To read the complete article, see:
The painstaking story behind the euro symbol (http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190605-the-currency-designed-with-such-lofty-ambition)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
CAJORI ON THE ORIGIN OF THE DOLLAR SIGN (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n18a18.html)
LOOSE CHANGE: JUNE 2, 2019 : The Origin of the Dollar Symbol (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n22a35.html)

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