500 euro note rapidly so that in the first 7 years (up to December 2008) there were 530,064,413 five hundred euro banknotes in circulation. Subsequently, the rate of increase was radically slowed. In August 2018, there were approximately 515,000,000 banknotes in circulation (decreased from 614,000,000 in 2015). It is the second least widely circulated denomination, accounting for 2.4% of the total banknotes. It is the largest note measuring 160 × 82 mm and has a purple colour scheme. The five hundred euro banknotes depict bridges and arches/doorways in modern architecture (around the late 20th century). The five hundred euro note contains several complex
Euro banknotes and in 2002 notes and coins began to circulate. It rapidly took over from the former national currencies and slowly expanded around the rest of the EU. In 2009, the Lisbon Treaty formalised the Euro's political authority, the Euro Group, alongside the European Central Bank. Slovenia joined the Eurozone in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014 and Lithuania in 2015. There are seven different denominations of the euro banknotes: €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200 and €500. Each has a distinctive colour and size. The designs for each of them have