Latvia joins the Eurozone
Today Latvia has joined the Eurozone. It is the 18th country to do so. It's own currency, the Lat, will cease to be legal tender on 15 January 2014. With this step the world not only loses a currency but also the third most valuable banknote: the 500 Lats which is worth around $982. Only the 10,000 Singapore dollar note ($7,908) and 1,000 Swiss franc note ($1,123) are currently worth more. Now the €500 banknote is the world's third most valuable banknote (about $688).
Latvia will eventually print it's 'own' euro banknotes. This is what the official changeover site has to say on that subject:
To meet Latvia’s needs for euro banknotes, an open competition among the printing works approved by the European Central Bank will be organized in collaboration with other national central banks. In the first year of euro changeover, we will borrow from other euro area countries.
It's unknown at this moment what the national identification letter (the first character of each note's serial number) will be on the euro notes from Latvia. Right now the letters A, B, C, I, O and Q are available.
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