The Euro had a very unusual status with regard of being a full currency, which was due to the generally accepted definition of currencies. A currency has three non-physical functions: i) it is a unit of account; ii) a store of value and iii) a medium of settlement. In addition, physical money in the form of bills and coins, making it legal tender in the issuing country, and a central bank, which supervises the currency and serves as a lender are traditionally the perceived characteristics of a currency. (Collins 1995). The lack of one of these latter characteristics does not necessarily prevent a means of payment from being a full currency.
    When viewed in light of the three non-physical functions, the Euro was a full currency. It served as a unit of account because different parties use the Euro as a denominator for transactions. The EU actually created the Euro for that purpose in the EMU. The Euro had a store value, because it was used in the form of accounts, bonds e.t.c. The Euro was also a medium of settlement because it settled transactions between different parties through book transfer of money. However at the moment Euro is a well-established and accepted currency.
    Many people were confused because although the Euro was a legal tender since the 1st of January 1999, practically no bills or coins existed at that time. Many experts and the general public perceive the existence of coins and notes as the most important feature of a currency, i.e. a currency without such physical representation is, in their understanding, not a currency at all, because only such coins and notes can validly be tendered for the payments of private and public debts. This narrow definition overlooks an important aspect and function of modem currencies. Currency, not only has the form of physical coins and notes. In fact, most money used in monetary systems is money in the form of non-physical account balances (Brigham 1999) with commercial and central banks.
    In European countries, for example, the amount of physical money ranges from 35 percent in Germany, to less than 8 percent in Great Britain (European Commission 1999). This means that between 65 and 92 percent of the money used in those countries is not in the form of coins and notes. Many transactions in modern society, such as cross-border payments, do not even leave themselves to use physical money anymore. Viewed from a practical point, the fact that 100 percent of all Euro transactions were book transactions without physical money was more a "psychological" barrier than an actual limitation on the Euro itself.