100 euro note

The one hundred euro note (€100) is one of the higher value euro banknotes. It has been used since 2002 when the euro was introduced as real money.

The note is the official currency of 21 countries in the European Union that use the euro. These countries are part of the Eurozone. They include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Some places outside the European Union, like Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City, also use the euro because they have special agreements with the EU. Kosovo and Montenegro chose to use the euro on their own.

Together, the countries that use the euro have about 350 million people. By July 2025, there were around 4.16 billion hundred euro banknotes in use. This made it the third most common banknote in the Eurozone. The design of the current 100 euro banknote was shown in September 2018 and started being used in May 2019.

History

Main article: History of the euro

The euro became the money used by many people in Europe on January 1, 1999. For the first three years, it was only used for things like bank accounts. Real euro money, like banknotes and coins, started being used on January 1, 2002. At that time, it replaced the old money used in countries like France and Spain.

More countries joined the euro over time. Slovenia joined in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014, Lithuania in 2015, Croatia in 2023, and Bulgaria will join in 2026.

The design of euro banknotes changed over the years. The first 100 euro note was introduced in 2002. A new version of the 100 euro note was released in May 2019. Older notes will still be worth their value and can still be used. A new design for the 100 euro note is planned for the late 2020s.

Design

The one hundred euro note is a bit bigger than a credit card. It measures 147 millimetres by 82 millimetres and has a green colour. It shows bridges and arches from the baroque and rococo styles of the 17th and 18th centuries.

All euro notes, including the hundred euro note, have special safety features to stop copying. These include colour-changing ink, see-through numbers, holograms, watermarks, raised printing, and more. These features help make sure the money is real.

Circulation

The European Central Bank checks on the use and supply of euro coins and banknotes to keep things running smoothly across the euro area.

As of December 2024, there were over 4 billion hundred euro banknotes in use, worth about €407 billion. These numbers include all the banknotes issued by the Eurosystem, whether they are with people or in bank vaults. The first set of euro notes started in January 2002, and a new 'Europe' series was released on May 28, 2019. Both types were used together for a while before the older ones were taken out of circulation.

Legal information

The European Central Bank and the central banks of the eurozone countries can issue the seven different euro banknotes. In practice, only the national central banks of the eurozone put these banknotes into circulation and take them out. The European Central Bank does not handle cash directly.

Tracking

Some people like to track euro banknotes as a hobby. A popular website is EuroBillTracker, where people share information about the notes they find. This helps everyone learn where the money has traveled.