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The European Central Bank unveiled the new €100 and €200 notes to the public at its headquarters in Frankfurt this week.
The new European bank notes feature an updated map of Europe on the back, including the islands of Malta and Cyprus.
The European Central Bank has said the new notes will include the latest anti-counterfeiting features and are scheduled to go into circulation across the Eurozone by May 2019. Like other bills in the second-generation "Europa" series, introduced in 2013, the new banknotes will include different holograms in a silver strip and an "emerald number" showing the denomination.
The new bills will include an improved "satellite" hologram of small euro symbols, while also being reduced in size to match the height of the €50 bill. That means notes will only be distinguishable by their length with the longer ones bearing a higher value.
ECB board member Yves Mersch told reporters in Frankfurt that green €100 banknotes make up some 23 percent of the value of paper money in circulation, making them "not just a niche product".
More than a million cash machines across the 19-member Eurozone will have to be adjusted before the new notes go into circulation. The older notes will remain legal tender but will gradually be phased out from circulation.
