Information about European Currency Unit

European Currency Unit
ISO 4217 Code	XEU
User(s)	European Community and later the European Union
Pegged with	The ECU was a basket of currencies
Symbol	₠ (rare), ECU or XEU
Plural	usually ECUs
Coins''	None circulating freely, although there were mock-ups. In 1989 the Dutch government issued a series of Ecu coins from ₠2½ to ₠200, which could be spent in shops in The Hague ('s-Gravenhage), during the European Capital of Culture festival.
Banknotes''	None, although there were mock-ups
Central bank	N/A
This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete.

Currency • Currency signs
฿ • ₵ • Cent • $ • ₡ • ₫ • € • ƒ • ₲ • ₭ • ₤ • Lm • ₥ • ₦ • ₱ • P • R • руб • ₨ ৲ • S/. • ৳ • R$ • $ • ₮ • ₩ • • zł • ₴ • ₪
Former signs ₳ • ₢ • ₰ • ₯ • ₠ • ₣ • ℳ • ₧ • I/.

The European Currency Unit (₠; ECU) was a basket of the currencies of the European Community member states, used as the unit of account of the European Community before being replaced by the euro. The European Exchange Rate Mechanism attempted to minimize fluctuations between member state currencies and the ECU. The ECU was also used in some international financial transactions.

The ECU was conceived on 13 March 1979 as an internal accounting unit. It had the ISO 4217 currency code XEU.

On January 1 1999, the euro (with the code EUR) replaced the ECU, at the value EUR 1 = XEU 1. Unlike the ECU, the euro is a real currency, although not all member states participate (for details on Euro membership see Eurozone). Two of the countries in the ECU basket of currencies, UK and Denmark, did not join the eurozone. On the other hand, Finland and Austria joined the Eurozone from the beginning although their currencies were not part of the ECU basket (since they had joined the EU in 1995, two years after the ECU composition was "frozen").

Due to the ECU being used in some international financial transactions, there was a concern that foreign courts might not recognize the euro as the legal successor to the ECU. This was unlikely to be a problem, since it is a generally accepted principle of private international law that states determine their currencies, and that therefore states would accept the European Union legislation to that effect. However, for abundant caution, several foreign jurisdictions adopted legislation to ensure a smooth transition. Of particular importance here were the USA states of Illinois and New York, under whose laws a large proportion of international financial contracts are made. Both these states passed legislation to ensure that the euro was recognized as successor to the ECU.

Although the acronym ECU is formed from English words, at the same time the word écu was a reference to an ancient French coin of the same name. That was one (perhaps the main) reason that a new name was devised for its successor currency, euro, which was felt not to favour any single language.

The currency's symbol, ₠ (U+20A0), comprises an interlaced C and E, which are the initial letters of the phrase 'European Community' in many European languages. However, this symbol was not widely used: few systems at the time could render it and in any case banks preferred (as with all currencies) to use the ISO code XEU.

National currency weights to the ECU value

Currency	13.03.1979- 16.09.1984	17.09.1984- 21.09.1989	21.09.1989- 31.12.1998
BEF	9.64%	8.57%	8.183%
DEM	32.98%	32.08%	31.955%
DKK	3.06%	2.69%	2.653%
ESP	-	-	4.138%
FRF	19.83%	19.06%	20.316%
GBP	13.34%	14.98%	12.452%
GRD	-	1.31%	0.437%
IEP	1.15%	1.20%	1.086%
ITL	9.49%	9.98%	7.840%
LUF	-	-	0.322%
NLG	10.51%	10.13%	9.98%
PTE	-	-	0.695%

See also

• Asian Currency Unit

•  • [ e] Euro-related topics
Topics	Eurozone (enlargement) Currencies related to the euro European Monetary System European Currency Unit European Exchange Rate Mechanism Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union Stability and Growth Pact Introduction of the euro Euro coins Euro banknotes Euro sign Linguistic issues concerning the euro
Coins by country – adopted	Austria Belgium Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Luxembourg Monaco Netherlands Portugal San Marino Slovenia Spain Vatican
Coins by country – future	Bulgaria Cyprus (2008) Czech Rep. Estonia Hungary Latvia Lithuania Malta (2008) Poland Romania Slovakia
Coins by country – other	Andorra Denmark Sweden  United Kingdom
Coins by denomination	€0.01 €0.02 €0.05 €0.10 €0.20 €0.50 €1 €2 €2 commemorative coins
Pre-euro currencies	Austrian Schilling Belgian franc Dutch gulden Finnish markka French franc German Mark Greek drachma Irish pound Italian lira Luxembourgian franc Monegasque franc Portuguese escudo Sammarinese lira Slovenian tolar Spanish peseta Vatican lira
ERM II currencies	Cypriot pound Danish krone Estonian kroon Latvian lats Lithuanian litas Maltese lira Slovak koruna
Other EU currencies	British pound Bulgarian lev Czech koruna Gibraltar pound Hungarian forint Polish złoty Romanian leu Swedish krona
Note: Denmark and the UK currently opt to maintain their national currencies, the krone and the pound. Sweden has not made any further efforts towards its obligation to join (and withdraw the krona) after the failed referendum in 2003.