The $/€ Rate Since The Launch of the €

Funnily enough you will have trouble forgetting the rate the day the € was launched unless you never heard about la prise de la Bastille: 1.1789). 

For the first three years the new currency lost ground reaching a minimum of 0.8252 on 26 October 2000. But since 6 July 2001 till 15 July 2008 the trend has been resolutely positive moving from 0.8384 USD to 1.5990 USD. That's a 7-year streak if you're paying attention and must have helped build robust reserves for exporters with inputs in USD and sales in EUR.

It then fell quite a bit with the collapse of the oil prices especially in October 2008 but recouped more than half of the decline in the following couple of months.

The USD/EUR rate then trended positively for two quarters beginning March 2009 before starting a negative trend from its local peak of 1.5120 on December 3, 2009. 

It closed at 1.2497 yesterday which is more than 50% its all-time low.

The graph is from the ECB's website. Check out the adjustable data windows.