Greece may mint Euro commemorative coin

Greece of all countries, one wants to proclaim, is allowed to mint a special coin, which is to be put into circulation by all 19 euro countries. Exactly when the aid package for the crisis country in southeastern Europe expires and there are increasing signs of a Grexit, a Greek exit from the euro, the commemorative coin is to be issued. A staircase joke of history.

The 2 euro commemorative coin was commissioned by the EU Commission in honor of the European flag, which saw the light of day 30 years ago. The design of the coin was put out to tender among all the mints of the euro area. Each could submit a design for it. Five designs were selected by a jury and submitted in a public online survey in which more than 100.000 people participated, for selection. The winner of this survey was the draft from Greece. The designer Georgios Stamatopoulos made his proposal for the 2 euro commemorative coin on behalf of the Bank of Greece.

Its coin shows the twelve euro stars in the center, around which 12 people are also grouped with their arms stretched out to the side. This is to suggest that these stars take the form of people and thus celebrate the birth of Europe, according to the designer Stamatopoulos

Without the respondents knowing where a draft came from, most of them voted for this draft in the online survey. So Greece is now allowed to issue the 2 euro commemorative coin, which unlike normal euro coins have a uniform obverse and reverse across Europe. 75 million pieces of this special coin are to be put into circulation.

Euro coins

Normal euro coins, on the other hand, are only the same design on the front throughout Europe, on the back they have a different design depending on the country. This makes many euro coins from comparatively small countries, such as the Vatican, Andorra or Monaco, sought-after collector’s items, as their number in circulation is very low.