The bridges portrayed on Euro banknotes aren't fictional anymore | Hacker News Reader

The bridges portrayed on Euro banknotes aren't fictional anymore

atlasobscura.com

165 pointsphilshem55 comments

If you ever get lost in the galaxy and need to find your way back home, use the handy table on a 20 CHF bill to adjust your location until you are the proper light-distance from everything. Once you're back on earth, use google maps or something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_franc#/media/File:20_CHF...

Any link to a demonstration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Titanic / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams%27s_Starship_Tit...

Fascinating! You'd have to do a bit more calculation though, as the distances were measured on a specific date:

https://nccr-planets.ch/blog/2017/12/07/astronomy-in-your-wa... (Scroll to the last paragraph)

No problem, the issue date is printed on the bank note :)

Does the table get updated for later issued notes? That'd be pretty awesome.

Per the article, the astronomers were able to determine that the distances were measured on 23 February 1987 at 8:52 CET (which was confirmed by the issuing national bank). This wouldn’t correspond with the issue date of the banknote, unfortunately.

What's more fascinating is opening that link and realizing that the picture is the one I took and posted on Wikipedia. I'm honored!

On a side note, if you are a photographer / love to take pictures, consider posting them with a CC0 license on Pixabay!

I'm curious, as a Wikipedia photo poster yourself why do you recommend Pixabay over Wikimedia Commons?

I guess there it doesn't really make a difference, but Pixabay pictures are most of the time included in the search results of similar search engines: therefore I feel it is more easy to find them on the internet.

In the end the platform (IMHO) doesn't really matter, but Wikimedia Commons doesn't always hold public domain pictures. I actually realized that the picture I posted was licensed CC-BY-SA on Wikimedia: I immeditely changed that to CC0 as soon as I noticed (:

The non-CC0 license at least dictates that your name should in some way follow the photo, and that's nice (though inconvenient and of course, ignored widely).

Me too have been pleasantly surprised to see my images still in use, for example 10 years after uploading them to wikipedia.

By the way, what kind of camera do you use for that kind of close-up?

I love to see my pictures online! Sometimes my CC0 pictures are used for news articles and such and I'm really happy to help out with my pictures . I also apply the same ideas when I develop: I always try to use the most open license where applicable.

I feel like sharing is caring - I use open source softwares myself and in turn I try to produce the same high quality software for the world to use.

Btw, the camera is a Canon 70D with a 18-135mm, f/3.5-5.6 lens :)

I have a lot of respect for people who invest their time educating people on Wikipedia. Such a useful contribution to society, at least among the options of content creation online.

Still needs to include a way to get to know what a 'second' is, like the Hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque

Thanks for posting. I will not forget my 20 francs when I go to space.

here's the side-by-side comparison i was hoping to see in this article: https://cdn.iwastesomuchtime.com/12172014223692.jpg

How can you write this article and not include the pictures. So ridiculous.

I think on desktop it’s an “obscured” slider. On mobile it’s more clear. Still appreciate the GP photo link - much easier to compare.

Interesting concept, I would have considered leaving the bridges their natural colors and installing small, tinted panes of glass at photo spots along the walkway. Would allow photos to show a more immersive 'banknote world,' while maintaining design consistency for area residents.

Tom Scott also did a short video on these bridges [1]!

[1] https://youtu.be/S9E1wsxOSzM

Great video. To the point. I liked it.

Pictures of the bridges.[1] Some look OK, some are kind of silly in small scale. The suspension bridge looks like something from a miniature golf course.

[1] http://www.robinstam.nl/#/bruggen-van-europa/

"Anymore" = since 2013.

This. The article looks undated and its title seems to reflect a moment, so it's a bit weird. Could [2013] be added to the title?.

NL Wikipedia [1] has some more info on them. It also provides a source for the bridges opening date.

[1] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spijkenisser_Eurobruggen

The title is weird like that because Atlas Obscura is a clickbait site that tries to sensationalize everything.

Weird that all bridges on Euro bills are in the Netherlands, doesn't seem very impartial /s

afaict the bridges were only designed for the notes (or unbuilt designs were used because they had a certain european aesthetic), and then the designs were used to build real bridges in the netherlands. it's just a tourist spot, similar to las vegas' wonders of the world.

That being the joke :-)

A bit of forgotten history is that the first set of bill designs were supposed to be fictional but in fact the designer(s) had copied existing bridges. Oops. AFAIK the EU never pursued the matter, they just forgot about the fraud and paid for the set of definitely-fictional designs that are now on the bills.

Interesting. Do you have a source?

EDIT: For whatever it's worth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes#Design says "The initial designs by Robert Kalina were of actual bridges, including the Rialto Bridge in Venice and the Pont de Neuilly in Paris, and were subsequently rendered more generic.", citing https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/03/news/etching-the-notes-of.... This is a much weaker claim than what you wrote, and even this isn't supported by the article.

The relevant parts of the NYT article are: "For his central motif, Mr. Kalina chose a bridge — not Pont Neuf in Paris or Venice's Bridge of Sighs. Mr. Kalina's was a bridge that no European had ever crossed. The ground rules for the design strictly prohibited displaying any recognizable national monuments or heroes that risked giving greater prominence to one country over another. So Mr. Kalina took bits and pieces of Europe's great bridges and with the help of his computer melded them into a neutered bridge presumably acceptable to all. "Hopefully," Mr. Kalina said with a grin, "no one will recognize the old places" incorporated in the design." and "He began the design process by scanning in architectural images from library books and toying with them on his Apple Macintosh. The initial landmarks included known sites such as the Rialto bridge in Venice and Pont de Neuilly just outside Paris. But Mr. Kalina, guided by the need to stress a European identity over any national loyalties, painstakingly eradicated all recognizable vestiges of each image, pixel by pixel."

This doesn't sound to me like "the initial designs were of actual bridges", like Wikipedia says. And especially not like "copying" and "fraud" like you said.

Reminds me of Agloe, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agloe,_New_York

There are many fake towns that became real because it was imagined on paper (usually to catch copyright) :)

When a metric becomes a target, the organization will optimize towards maximizing the metric.

As an american, this seems like the sort of thing that would spark a bridge building contest between states.

Oh they built the bridges in jersey? Hell yeah we can do it in NYC

Yeah. I can see a stupid thing like that happening.

Why would that be stupid? I actually think it's kind of stupid for only one country to have the bridges shown on EU currency.

I was just thinking it would be cool if a bunch of the EU countries each started building these bridges. You could see it as a symbol of unity. Maybe they could do something interesting with it like each country adding their own personal touches to the design. Or using the bridges to bring attention to lesser-known, interesting cities in the country.

Actually at least in France the cathedrals became taller and taller exactly for that reason.

previous discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12193352

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8769509

Worse stil, the submitter posted virtually the same conte t 21 hours ago. Even HN isn't immune from Karma farmers.

It’s not against the rules to try to post something twice

Hi, just thought it was super interesting. Not farming anything.

great so now we have to print new banknotes because it s not fair that the bridges are all in Netherlands

The Netherlands being one of the major exporters of EU capitals towards Caribbean tax havens, this is... apt.

I haven't seen a banknote in months and certainly never anything above €50- hell I think the only they ever accepted are the €10 and €20 bills.

Which is just as well because damn are they ugly. Thats globalism for you. Can't celebrate people, buildings or even animals for fear of giving offense to someone.

After reading the title I honestly expected to see photos from some Chinese fake European town. That would actually be quite funny.

Actually, I find it quite embarrassing that Europe, who often refers to its "European culture" cannot decide on real life people or architectural landmarks to be printed on its bank notes, because some country may feel devaluated with it's national symbol only being on the 10 Euro note.

That's such a weird perspective - I think you're adding a narrative where there isn't one. Of course Europe could have decided on a set of landmarks but decided that using non-existent landmarks represents us better - the currency is just that, currency. Why should it have landmarks or people? In fact I find it weird that some countries print their famous people on their money - it just seems so pretentious.

Countries have an ongoing PR/marketing angle often called patriotism to build their stockpile of goodwill for spending on questionable things.

> Countries have an ongoing [propaganda] angle often called patriotism to build their stockpile of goodwill for spending on questionable things.

Let's call it what it is. Just because propaganda is a scary word that "We would never do!" doesn't make it not propaganda.

Edit: I should be more clear. Patriotism is not in and of itself bad. However, when it crosses from "I am proud of my country" to "My country is always right", that is no longer a good thing.

I'm under the impression that propaganda was the original term, and after it got burned by overuse in WWI[1], the commercial side rebranded itself as "public relations" during the 1920s.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23895444

That's neat to know. Thanks for the link.

I'll add the book listed there to my reading list.

Some of them might feel upset by not being on the notes at all, given the Euro is the official currency of 19 of the EU countries.

Also, Eurozone membership has steadily expanded over the past two decades. There are several countries in the waiting room.

It would seem unfair if only the original set of countries were represented on the bills.

At least each country get to choose what's on their coins

Also, who would be on the notes? European history is rather complex and people are seen either as a positive or negative depending on (local) history and culture.

It would have set off endless moaning by nationalist loons, and presumably some sort of awkward shuffling any time someone joined. Far simpler this way.

Countries are allowed put people on their coins if they so wish, and some do.

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