The European Central Bank’s (ECB) first president, Wim Duisenberg, described the launch of the physical euro two years after its electronic debut on January 1, 1999, as “a moment in which the flow of history is present”.

Despite the large divergence of the 12 founding economies – something that worried the single currency’s architects – most historians will record the euro’s first decade as more successful than expected. Not so its second decade; one marred by the eurozone sovereign debt crisis