3 ms·
Birds aren't real.
by sunaookami 3mo ago
Birds aren't real.
- mytailorisrich 3mo agoThat's exactly why they are a better choice, like the imaginary bridges on current Euro banknotes. The selection of people is also quite poor but that's because people are a poor choice: Most notable historical people are very linked to specific countries, often against other countries so picking neutral ones is hard. They also clearly decided to have an equal number of men and women, which makes it even harder. Obviously there aren't enough different banknotes to represent every country, either.
- ncruces 3mo agoExactly. Faces are a terrible idea for a common currency shared by 21 countries. You have to pick one writer, good that the English left for good so Shakespeare's out, but how do the French feel about Cervantes vs. Victor Hugo? The Poles complaining that they didn't get enough recognition because Marie Curie's maiden name isn't given enough prominence should tell you all there is to know about this being a good idea.
- seszett 3mo ago> how do the French feel about Cervantes vs. Victor Hugo? I don't think anybody would mind since there's already Marie Curie, which is an obvious choice because she's both Polish and French. I don't know how the Polish take it but the French have no particular feelings about her being Polish as well.
- mytailorisrich 3mo agoYou still need to tread carefully as @ncruses said. So not Marie Curie but Maria Skłodowska-Curie.
- ncruces 3mo agoMaria Skłodowska-Curie was very helpful, at trying to solve #2 and #5 countries (by population) in one stroke. Good that the big 5 EU countries were simple enough to cover. But why are a Greek-American, and an - unknown to the majority of Europeans - Austrian in there? How many counties more populous than Austria are unrepresented? Do all EU countries count, or just EZ? (Poland is not EZ, is represented, still complained) It's an impossible list. Europeans don't necessarily have shared heroes, and if they did, some of these wouldn't be top 6.
- expedition32 3mo agoHeroes fought and died fighting countries that are in the EU today. Obviously you can't have them on the banknotes. As for the smaller countries- well let's face it do you think anyone in Europe gives a shit about Dutch or Estonian history and culture? Its France and Germany all the way down I'm afraid. At least we still have the veto.
- ncruces 3mo agoMaybe your heroes did. And no one gives a shit about the (18 million) Dutch, but we picked Bertha von Suttner.
- expedition32 3mo agoYeah I am not a europhile who wants to deny the last 1000 years happened and start singing kumbaya. Want to know why? Because I don't believe it.
- zokier 3mo agoThey could have done the same thing they did with the coins and make every country put their own faces in there.
- mytailorisrich 3mo agoNote that even for that, countries had to chose neutral things not to create problems.
- Good4boothee 3mo ago[dead]
- krick 3mo agoAren't they? Pictures are quite small, but B50 is clearly a stork. B100 looks like some kind of heron maybe, not sure. B10 is a kingfisher, I suppose. I don't know, they look real enough to me.
- echoangle 3mo agoSeems like some people are missing the joke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_Aren%27t_Real https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_Aren%27t_Real