The euro sign is “€.” Since 12 December 1996, this symbol is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the Eurozone in the European Union. But who created that symbol? Following the European Commission’s announcement that the “€” was the winner in a currency sign design contest, a controversy arose. Two different camps claim paternity for the euro sign: An unnamed team of four experts and the graphic designer, Arthur Eisenmenger, former chief designer of the European Economic Commission.

The euro sign denoting the official currency of the Eurozone in the European Union. Photo courtesy of wikipedia. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Potential Father of the Euro Sign # 1

According to the European Commission, thirty-two proposals for the euro sign were submitted as part of a design competition. Ten of the submittals were selected and presented to the public by way of a survey. Jacque Santer, then president of the European Commission, and Yves Thibault de Silguy, commissioner in charge of the euro, picked the winning design from the public’s top two favorites during an internal meeting. The € was the winner, a design supposedly created by a team of four experts whose identities have never been revealed.

When the adopted euro sign was presented to the public, Jacques Santer explained that the inspiration for the € symbol came from the Greek letter epsilon, alluding to the cradle of European civilization. What’s more, the Greek letter epsilon looks very similar to the letter “E” in English, and the letter “E” happens to be the first letter of the word “Europe.” Therefore, the euro sign symbolizes both the cradle of European civilization and Europe itself. Santer further explained that the parallel lines crossing the euro sign stand for stability of the euro.

Potential Father of the Euro Sign # 2

“Rubbish,” said Arthur Eisenmenger to Jacques Santer’s assertion. Eisenmenger, who supervised the development of the European Union flag and the “CE” symbol for European consumer goods quality control, claims that it was he who designed the euro sign. He said he came up with the idea just before he retired in 1974, long before the European Commission created a design contest. At the time he created the design, he was thinking of a generic logo for Europe, not a sign that stood for currency, Eisenmenger said. After all, he came up with the design twenty-two years before the euro became the currency of the Eurozone.

Following creation of the symbol, Eisenmenger said he sent his design to the European Commission in Brussels, but never heard back. The years passed. Then, in 1997, Eisenmenger turned on his television and, to his surprise, saw Jacque Santer present the world with the “new” euro sign. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/dec/23/euro.eu1 Santer explained in the broadcast that the sign fulfilled the competition criteria of creating a symbol of Europe, which was easy to write and recognize and was aesthetically pleasing. There was no mention of Eisenmenger as the creator of the euro sign.

Julien Bozzola, a French illustrator, who worked with Eisenmenger for thirteen years until the mid-70s, is also convinced that the euro sign would have been the creation of his former colleague. According to Bozzola, Eisenmenger was frequently working on various design versions of the letter “E” because his last name began with an E. Arthur Eisenmenger died in 2002 at age 87 without ever having been officially connected with the creation of the euro sign.

How the Euro Sign was chosen

One thing sounds odd in the case. To this day, the European Commission has considered the design process internal and does not disclose the information regarding the designer(s) of the euro sign. Although the names of the designers of the euro banknotes and coins are known, the names of the design contestants for the euro sign are kept secret. Some have conjectured that the Belgian graphic designer, Alain Billiet, might have created the winning design, but the assumption has never been confirmed. Jean-Pierre Malivoir, responsible for promoting the public image of the euro, said that it was impossible to say who designed the euro sign. He claims it was a team of graphic artists.

Will the real father of the Euro sign, the €, please stand up?

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Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.