The Euro is the official currency in many of the countries in Europe and is traded in many other countries whose governments have not accepted the Euro as the sole currency. In addition to this, the currency is used in various other countries around the world and is known to be one of the most stable currencies that exist.
As with most currencies, there are both notes and coins that can be used when Euro is used physically in an exchange settlement. They can either be stated as a value in cents or Euros. 100 cents make up one Euro. There are eight different official values of Euro coins that are frequently used. They include coins worth 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents 20 cents, 50 cents, 1 Euro and 2 Euros. There are some additional coins, but these are not used in normal circumstances.
Compared to the note system of the US dollar, there are more kinds of different banknotes that are used frequently of Euros. There are seven different notes of the Euro that are easily accessible compared to the six of the US dollar. Also, the values of the notes that are used within the Eurozone countries tend to have a higher value than those of the US dollar. For example, the highest frequently traded note of the US dollar is the 100 dollar note, which seems relatively small to the largest note in the Euro worth €500. €500 is worth about 600 dollars, depending on the exchange rate.
The Euro has been traded under its current name since 1999 and has since then gained great importance in the world foreign exchange market. Having over ?900 billion of coins and banknotes in circulation in the world, this makes the Euro the largest currency in the world. It has surpassed the US dollar that for many years had this characteristic. Before the Euro, many small economies around the world used to peg their currency to the US dollar to maintain stability. Now, many of these countries have switched that currency to the Euro as it has shown to be more stable. However, the US dollar remains being the second largest currency in the world and is still of great importance.
At the end of 2009, a so called debt crisis started to erupt in countries around Europe. It is impossible to point out where exactly the crisis started since it is closely linked to the global financial crisis, but many people associate this crisis with Greece. Greece is definitely not the only country to blame for the fall in the value of the Euro during this period, however, Greece is without doubt the country that has suffered hardest. As at 2012, many countries such as Spain, Italy and Ireland suffer great losses from this crisis, and since they are all members of the Eurozone, their financial position also affect the value of their currency, the Euro.