Euro banknotes entered circulation on 23 September 2014. The full design of the Europa series 20 euro banknote was revealed on 24 February 2015, On 4 May 2016, the European Central Bank announced that the Europa series 500 euro banknote would not be released, due to fears of "facilitating the criminal activity". The old series will gradually be withdrawn. The ECB will announce "well in advance" when the old notes will lose their legal tender status. However, they will not lose their value and it will be possible to exchange them for new notes at Eurosystem central banks indefinitely. "A good design
Bulgaria and the euro banknotes. The second series of notes (beginning with the €5 note issued from 2013) includes the term "ЕВРО" and the abbreviation "ЕЦБ" (short for "Европейска централна банка", the Bulgarian name of the European Central Bank). The first series had only the standard Latin alphabet "EURO" and the Greek "ΕΥΡΩ". The euro coins only have the Latin "EURO" on their common side. Greek coins include the alternative Greek spelling on the national (obverse) side. Bulgarian coins, therefore, may follow suit, having "EURO" on one side and "ЕВРО" on the other. The plural of евро in Bulgarian varies in spoken language –