500 euro note 26 April 2019. “Authorities increasingly suspect that they (€500 notes) are being used for illegal purposes, an argument that we can no longer ignore,” according to a high-ranking bank official, Benoît Cœuré. The euro was founded on 1 January 1999, when it became the currency of over 300 million people in Europe. For the first three years of its existence it was an invisible currency, only used in accountancy. Euro cash was not introduced until 1 January 2002, when it replaced the national banknotes and coins of the countries in eurozone 12, such as the Luxembourgish franc. Slovenia joined the
United Kingdom and the euro United Kingdom and the euro The United Kingdom has never sought to adopt the euro as its official currency for the duration of its membership of the European Union (EU), and secured an opt-out at the euro's creation via the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Polls have shown that the majority of British people have been against adopting the euro, and in a June 2016 referendum the UK voted to withdraw from the EU which would virtually eliminate the chance of any future adoption. Despite never being a member of the euro, the currency is used in the UK's Cypriot territories