This year's Europe Week began with a little numismatic sensation. Euroland will, in 2007, issue its first €2 commem that has the same design in all countries of the currency union. The coin commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome which established what later became the European Union.

More information at
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avservices/photo/..._en.cfm?id=1024

Christian

Here is another image that shows some more details.



Christian

How nice, everybody issues their coin with Treaty of Rome, it is amazing the French permitted that

Whatever.

So there will be 12 or 13 of these coins -- same design but with the issuing country indicated. Good timing. I will have to rethink my 2€ Commemorative Album plan.

I like the design very much.

i like the design, too, but i think they should all just say "ISSUING COUNTRY" ...

Well I do like the design and can say this will be another MUST HAVE for my $2 euro collection. Living in the States makes it a little difficult to keep up with all the news so I have to make an extra effort to get my paws on many of the Euro commemoratives. I could never have got my euro collection started without the help of so many great collectors, and now friends, in Europe and I do appreciate each and every one of you (them) very much for your efforts in helping this Hoosier build a collection I can be proud of!

actually, cp has been a good source of this sort of info ...

Interesting idea!

I assume this commem will be in addition to each country's choice to issue an an individual €2 next year? Or will this replace either the normal country specific issue or country specific commem?

Actually I don't know yet which countries/mints will participate in that program. The Netherlands, for example, cannot use that design unless they change their law (muntwet) which specifies that the head of state has to be depicted on every coin issued by the Royal Dutch Mint. Not sure about Luxembourg, but their Henri seems to be on all LU coins ... For the other euro countries that should not be a problem.

The design is of course a pattern only; "Treaty of Rome - 50 Years" is likely to be replaced by whatever that means in the languages of the participating countries. And "Issuing Country" would, well ... If Greece participates, they would probably add the face value in Greek characters, and Germany ("Bundesrepublik Deutschland") would have to resort to a tiny font size for the country name, hehe.

In case the pattern "behind" the treaty document looks familiar - that is also depicted on the Italian 50 ct circulation coins. Michelangelo designed that pavement of the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome. And it's right there, on the Capitol in Rome (specifically, in the "Sala degli Oriazi e Curiazi" of the Palazzo dei Conservatori), where the Treaties were signed.

As for whether this coin will replace any others ... maybe so, maybe not. For example, I would find it hard to imagine that any of the three non-EU euro countries uses that design. If the issuing countries could use their "commem contingents" only, Greece would have to stay out anyway (due to the issue volume in 2004). Germany may stay out since a €10 Treaties of Rome collector coin was planned for 2007 anyway. Guess that in the next couple of days we will hear more about this €2 commemorative program.

Christian

This is a suggestion of a "localized" piece (for Italy), not from any official source but from "frizio", an Italian designer. He also used a new look of the common side, similar to the official one that the EU agreed upon last year. Looks neat.

(Edit: Here are two design examples, one for France, one for Italy.)



Christian

This post has been edited by tabbs: May 8 2006, 04:33 PM

I'm sure that if FRance will participate, they will add mint mark and mint master mark to the design.

Yes, I think so too. Same with Belgium for example. But as for these designs, "frizio" simply wanted to show what the coin could look like in different languages and with different country names ...

Some more "localizations" are here:
http://www.lamoneta.it/index.php?showtopic=10917&st=15

But keep in mind that at this stage we do not know for sure how many (and which) countries will actually participate in that issue program.

(Link updated)

Christian

This post has been edited by tabbs: May 10 2006, 03:43 PM

And would they have 2? Belgie and Belgique?

Or maybe even three: "België" (nl), "Belgique" (fr), "Belgien" (de). Those are the ones that they have one their collector coins.

In the years of the franc/frank, they had just the Dutch and French versions (German is a fairly recent addition), and in many cases two different pieces were issued. Guess you know about that. Whether that could be done here, I don't know. What would Finland do if they participated in this program?

Christian

I would guess that a single hy "Suomi - Finland" would be the likely result.