The Euro fell heavily against the USD, from 1.18 EUR/USD to 0.82 EUR/USD, before the Euro bank notes were officially launched. After the official launch in January 2002, the Euro began to steadily appreciate and was topping at 1.6 EUR/USD in the summer of 2008. However, in late 2009 the Euro started to drop against USD again after concerns over the solvency of Greece.