Production

Euro banknotes are issued by the Eurosystem national central banks (NCBs), under the authorisation of the European Central Bank, which has the exclusive right to authorise the issue of banknotes in the euro area.

Euro banknote production is decentralised and pooled between the national central banks of the Eurosystem. This means that each euro area NCB is responsible, on an annual basis, for the production of one or more denominations, to meet its own needs and those of other NCBs. This production corresponds to a share of the total needs of the Eurosystem.

This policy aims at ensuring the supply of banknotes of a consistent and uniform quality, reducing the number of printing works for each denomination and, mainly, obtaining economies of scale in the productive process.

Some NCBs awarded their production to private printing works, but continued to be responsible for the quality of printed banknotes.

Euro banknotes are produced in a number of countries and involve several printing works. Banco de Portugal commissioned its production share to Valora, which is wholly owned by Banco de Portugal.

The serial number of euro banknotes indicates the country that commissioned their production. A letter preceding the serial number of the banknote identifies that country, according to the following table: