500 euro note supply of euro notes and to maintain their integrity throughout the euro area. The €500 banknote peaked at the end of March 2009 at 36.9% of the value of all Euro banknotes.Circulation by numbers of notes peaked at 613,559,542 banknotes in December 2015 when the decision to not include this denomination in the new Europa series was made. The lowest number of €500 banknotes in recent years is, 507,033,274 in February 2018. Besides the date of the introduction of the first set to January 2002, the publication of figures is more significant through the maximum number of banknotes raised each
UEFA Euro 2012 two consecutive European Championships, and also three straight major tournaments (Euro 2008, 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012). Spain had already gained entry to the 2013 Confederations Cup by winning the 2010 World Cup, so runners-up Italy qualified instead. As at Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, both 2012 host nations were eliminated in the group stage. The hosting of the event was initially contested by five bids representing seven countries: Croatia–Hungary, Greece, Italy, Poland–Ukraine, and Turkey. In November 2005, after an initial consideration of the bid data by UEFA, both the Greek and Turkish bids were eliminated from the