The central banks of Croatia and Ireland apparently plan to issue a set of two coins honoring the sculptor Ivan Mestrovic this year. Mestrovic was born in Vrpolje (Austria-Hungary, then Yugoslavia, then Croatia) and lived and worked in various places in Europe and the US. The connection to Ireland may be a little obscure but is quite interesting:

Mr Mestrovic submitted a design for the first coinage of the Irish Free State in 1927. Unfortunately, because of difficulty contacting him - he was in the United States - his design arrived too late for consideration. The Chairman of the Design Committee, Irish poet William Butler Yeats, subsequently wrote "He made one magnificent design and, on discovering that the date had passed, gave it to the Irish Free State with great generosity".
http://www.centralbank.ie/frame_main.asp?p...;nv=nws_nav.asp
However, the design was subsequently adopted by the Central Bank as its official seal.
http://www.centralbank.ie/frame_main.asp?p...;nv=nws_nav.asp

As far as I know, the Irish contribution will be a €15 coin (silver, mintage 8,000). From Croatia comes a 150 kuna silver coin; mintage will be similarly low. Have not seen any pictures of the designs yet ...

Christian

One of Mestrovic's works, as seen on the 50 dinara note:

Some of the best statues of Ivan Mestrovic are in Romania, Bucharest. The most beautiful, equestrian statue of king Carol I unfortunately was removed by communist regime:

Seems that this will be the Irish coin:



The woman with the harp is actually nice. As far as I know, that is basically the design that Mestrovic submitted (see the first message), and the one used for both coins. A larger/better image is here: http://www.muenzblog.de/bilder/irland-15-e...trovic-2007.jpg

The Irish national side, well, I am not so fond of that. Have not seen pictures of the Croatian national side yet.

Christian

Too bad the original design had not arrived in time, could have been the harp side of the Saorstat coinage. It is a nice design. I like the Percy Metcalfe designs, but this harp design is nicer.

The central bank now has an even larger image online:
http://www.centralbank.ie/data/CoinFiles/Obverse.jpg

That coin is available as a proof piece only, however, and thus quite expensive ...
http://www.centralbank.ie/frame_main.asp?p...;nv=ncn_nav.asp

Christian

Here is an image (my quick scan, from the Irish order form) of both the Croatian and the Irish coin.

Christian

Got a set of these coins this weekend at the Irish International coin fair. Really nice coins. The double box set is limited to 2,000 overall, 1,000 to Ireland 1,000 to Croatia. I really like the "girl with harp" design too. It really is too bad that it wasn't submitted on time. Would have made the old coins really nice.

Seems that this coin show was the only occasion, or one of the very few, to buy the two-coin set directly from the mint/central bank. I got an order form for the Irish coin which specifically said that the contingent for Ireland - those 1,000 double sets - would be sold exclusively there ...

Well, I do not really collect Croatian commems, so the Irish coin was what I actually wanted (and will hopefully soon have). But in general I like the concept of such joint issues with identical or very similar designs.

Oh, and welcome to CoinPeople!

Christian

Thanks for the welcome. Sorry to go off topic but does anyone know when the 2 Euro Treaty of Rome coins are due for release and if I would be able to order one from each country off the ECB?

as far as I know, you can't order coins from ECB. it's only for info purposes. Maybe you will find them at a local dealer or on ebay..

off topic@@ (again):
the celebration day is on 25th of March 2007. I guess this is also the official release day!

Right. See http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?showtopic=9194 ... That is a Sunday, so don't expect commercial banks to open especially for that purpose. But the German pieces, for example, will be sold by the VfS (numismatic office) at a coin show in Stuttgart on that very day.

Now whether all participating countries will make their Treaty of Rome pieces available on the 25th (or rather 26th) remains to be seen. I sure hope so.

Christian

Christian,I am fairly sure that some of the British Commonwealth coin collectors will be buying the Irish 15 Euros.Does anyone know if it will be struck as an Unc. piece,or will it only be in Proof?

Let's hope that someone submits some photos of the 15 Euros & the Irish Treaty of Rome commemorative 2 Euros off to http://www.coincraft.com for listing in the online version of the Pink Coincraft catalogue.

Aidan.

i bought one of these €15 irish ivan mestrovic silver proof coins a few days ago.
only 8,000 minted, mine is number 3822. nice!