On Thursday 23 October 2014 the ECB’s Euro Exhibition was opened at the National Museum Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius. The exhibition is part of the euro information campaign which is dedicated to the adoption of the euro in Lithuania on 1 January 2015.
The exhibition, travelling across Europe, is constantly updated. It displays coins of euro area countries with the national sides and the currencies that existed before the euro adoption. The exhibition opened in the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania was for the first time supplemented with the Lithuanian euro coins with the coat-of-arms of the State of Lithuania,Vytis, as well as litas notes and coins.
“Before coming here to meet with you I once again checked the work schedule of Lietuvos bankas. And I can assure you – we are almost prepared for the euro. Most of the Lithuanian euro coins with the mark of the Vytis, which is dear to all of us, have already been minted and are waiting for their journey to life in the Bank's vaults. The euro banknotes are also arriving,” Vitas Vasiliauskas, Chairman of the Board of Lietuvos bankas, revealed during the opening ceremony.
The opening of the exhibition officially launched the euro information campaign organised by the ECB and Lietuvos bankas. Two video clips about the euro banknotes to shortly appear in our wallets – “Lithuania Introduces the Euro. Journey” and “Lithuania Introduces the Euro. Meet Our Money” — dedicated to the campaign, were presented.
The public will be able to watch the videos on TV in December and January, while on the screens in shopping malls, banks and other providers of goods and services across Lithuania – already from the end of this month. ECB publications about the euro will be distributed. In December, 1.3 million information packages about the euro notes will be delivered to all post boxes: a special publication of the ECB and lenticular conversion cards.
“One of the key messages of the euro campaign will be to show how the euro is a currency that brings together 338 million people within the euro area, all of them using the same notes and coins,” Ton Roos, Director of the Directorate Banknotes of the European Central Bank, stated during the opening.
According to the Eurobarometer survey which was published in September this year, among the key information requested by the Lithuanian public during the preparations for the euro adoption is the appearance of the euro notes and coins (this was reported by 36 per cent of the surveyed).
The visitors of the Euro Exhibition will gain more knowledge on the history of the euro, banknote design, production, security features, destruction of worn out banknotes, and will learn to differentiate a genuine banknote from a counterfeit. 5 and 10 euro notes from the new (second) series, named “Europa Series”, are presented. Here one will also be introduced to the coins of all the euro area countries, which will be legal tender in Lithuania as well.
“The circle of history, confirmed by the results of studies of this palace and archaeological finds, has turned around and today, after centuries of the functioning of national currencies, Europe, in the process of unification, is returning to a single currency. The euro seems to replace the ancient Roman coins or later Prague groats that have been found in this region of Europe,” noted Vydas Dolinskas, Director of the National Museum Palace of the Grand dukes of Lithuania.
The ECB and Lietuvos bankas have organised this exhibition in collaboration with the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.
A number of events are planned: meetings with members of the Board of Lietuvos bankas; film watching and lectures; on three Sundays the Family Days will take place: children and their parents will be invited to concerts, various workshops.
A detailed programme of the events is available on the website created for the exhibition.
The exhibition will take place until 5 January 2015. Admission is free.
The Euro Exhibition, , has travelled since 2008, to 15 different cities in 12 European countries, including Estonia and Latvia. It has attracted over 300 thousand visitors.
