Next year the euro countries will issue a common €2 commemorative coin for the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the common currency. And for the first time people in all member states can vote for their favorite design.

In a few days the pre-selected designs will be on display at the EU website, and between 31 January and 22 February, you can say which one you like best ... and even win a set of collector coins. More information is here: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/themat...cle11072_en.htm

Why 2009? Well, 1999 is when the euro was introduced, turning the national currencies into "sub-units" of the new currency. The cash came later, but this piece commemorates € Day on 1-Jan-99. The coins will have a common design but, like last year's Treaty of Rome commems, also have member state specific elements. All 15 EU member states that are in the euro area will participate; this way the issue does not count regarding the "one commem per year" limit.

Christian

That's really nice, can't wait to vote

I like this fantasy design by one of our Coinpeople members:



Here's the page:

http://www.webalice.it/annovi.frizio/p_eurofantasy15.html

Yes, looks good - I like that one much better than his "wreath" design. But I assume that the trend towards having only the Stars of Europe (arranged like on the flag) on the coin ring will continue. Personally I prefer more balanced designs over those that are "busy" in the center and have an almost empty ring, but ...

Frizio has made quite a few attractive designs. Problem is, most mints have a "pool" of artists, primarily from the issuing country, who are invited to participate in design competitions. And at least here in Germany, a coin designer who wants to be in that pool needs to know how to make a coin design the "classic" way. So the artist has to be familiar with making a plaster model, for example.

It would have been neat if this design competition had been open wide, so that anybody, whether a pro or not, could have submitted design ideas. But that would have been an immense amount of work, I think.

Christian

This is the website where you can now vote for your favorite design:
http://www.eurodesigncontest.eu/

Note that you need to enter your name and address; seems that is the only way to verify that you vote only once and are a EU citizen or resident. Frankly, I am not exactly overwhelmed by any of the designs. Plus (or rather minus), it seems there is no way to get an enlarged view. Oops, my mistake - see further below.

Christian

I may register with one of our €U members addresses, then win

Hmm, maybe you still have some Scottish address you can use? After all, it's not limited to people in the euro area - even those in peripheral member states can vote. Oh, and as for the enlarged view, well, it works but only on the first page (with the question marks), not when you see the small versions. Duh.

My preferred design (as in the one-eyed among the blind ...) is #5. The first one looks too plain, the second is nice (childish/archaic) but not as the only graphic element of a coin side. Number 3 and 4 combine the euro symbol and the Roman numeral 10 in a way that IMO suggests "ex" ... and the fifth one, with the ten little guys, is OK.

Christian

I like the cave painting one. The rest are.... meh.

I might use my Dusseldorf address. I don't consider Scotland to be a part of the €U, only Great Britain is.

Well, the UK is part of the EU, for whichever reason, but does not have anything to do with an "€U". And as for which address you will use ... I take it you are not interested in getting the Hamburg €2 piece then which I plan to pick up tomorrow.

Christian

Ich bin ein "Hamburger", yes I want one. In the 1930's there was a fast steam (dampfwagen?) train called the Fliegend(sp?) Hamburger, the Flying Hamburger.

But seriously what stops one from just entering whatever address they choose, other than that they will not then get the prize if they are selected? Lately with the presidential election mess, might have to brush up on my European anyway.

Good question. Of course, if an IP address check tells them that Joe Shmoe "from" Luxembourg actually voted from the US, that vote could be ignored. Now whether they actually do all that only to make sure that only EUropeans can vote ...

Christian

Several of the states in the USA had voting for their state quarters, and tried to make it look like only state residents could vote. But I voted for the Alaska and the Oregon quarters. Unless you block whole IP ranges, or block people that can mask them, limiting is only as good as the programme that allegedly does it.

Maybe the prize will be the giant austrian gold euro coin?

I would move to Europe for that

He he, but be careful where in Europe...

Ah, I got my e-mail confirmation and clicked the link. Thus my vote has now been registered. Oh, and then you get to see the current results:

#1: 10%
#2: 33%
#3: 15%
#4: 11%
#5: 33%

Three more weeks ...

Christian

i my site all the n. 5 versions...

http://www.webalice.it/annovi.frizio/p_eurofantasy15.html

please if you want send me impressions.. :-)

Nice artwork!

i like the second design, that old-kind one
i voted for it, too

thank you, I have already my graphic propositions for ten years euro... like you?

Voting ends today, and according to what Gerhard Schön (the catalog author) posted to some German coin forums, design #2 is currently ahead. The winning design will officially be announced on Monday.

Christian

I have voted for n. 5

Yes, me too. And yesterday I asked various people to vote as this would be the last chance and otherwise #2 might win yadda yadda. (None of the five is very exciting, but #5 is still the best, I think.) Hope they all voted, and made the right decision

Christian

i missed out ... but since i dont' have a current e.u. address it wouldn't have worked out anyway.

i agree that #2 is a fine design with something else ... the australians had a AUD0.50 coin some years ago that was in a similar style (KM 257), but with more design elements ...

i would have voted for #5 also.

Scotland is part of the EU, we ARE the UK.

As to the thread. WHY ONE EARTH DID I NOT SEE THIS BEFORE

I really would have liked to vote in this.

Had I done so, I think number 5 would have got my vote.

Do the English know about that?

As for the design contest, in some European forums a few people asked why, in a euro coin design vote, people from non-euro countries can vote at all. Well, the problem was Slovakia: The country may well join Euroland on 1 January 2009 (will be decided later this year), and in that case it will be among the countries issuing this coin. So it made sense to let people in SK vote too. Then again you can't say, let them participate, and at the same time "exclude" people from other EU-but-not-euro countries.

Ah, well, see it the positive way: Not having voted for one of these ho-hum designs is nothing that you should make you angry or sad. And if design #5 wins (which I hope), then you are still in the "winning camp".

Christian

Actually, the pessimists from England now claim that we run everything. Since a large number of Scottish Labour MP's vote on domestic English policies while Scottish domestic policies are handled in a separate parliament. It means that labour can effectively force though legalisation on England using votes from Scotland. A situation which is wrong.




I think it should be open to all EU citizens, after all, with the exception of the UK and Denmark (mabey Sweden) every other EU country HAS to join the Euro as soon as it is possible. Plus there are those of us in the UK that want the Euro.

I believe that since the SNP cannot get it together and garner the votes necessary for an effective devolution, perhaps England should take the precedent and strike out on her own.

The SNP have always abstained from English only policy votes, and have argued for England to have its own parliament. Yet many people still continue to call them an "Anti-English" party. The reality is the SNP as pro-England as they are Pro-Scotland.

In any case, if there was another Scottish election tomorrow I put money on it that SNP would gain 8 seats. They where projected to have 8 more than they actually got, and many of those seats where only hundreds away from taking (huge swings to them). The media spend the two days before the election telling everyone how awful and damaging an SNP government in Scotland would be. In reality we are doing great and SNP support in the opinion polls has never been higher. The people now see what a pack of rubbish it all was.

Alex Salmond even offered the other party's the chance of another election, and they turned it down because they all know they have more risk of loosing seats than gaining them.

We have a winner ...


http://www.eurodesigncontest.eu/images/result_schema.jpg

Seems that design #2 got quite a few votes in the last couple of days. The artist of the winning design is Georgios Stamatopoulos who also designed the Greek €1 and €2 circulation coins. The second best (with regard to the number of votes) was designed by Helmut Andexlinger (Austrian Mint). About 140,000 people participated in the euro design vote. So this will be the coin:



The words "Issuing Country" and "E.M.U." will of course be adapted. Oh well, I am not exactly happy about the outcome, but then again, so far I have not even been able to vote in any euro design contest ...

Christian

Nooooohhh well, at least it was my second choice.

Seems that #2 may have won primarily due to some kind of chain mail campaign. A few days before the voting ended, quite a few e-mail messages circulated in Greece, and forum messages were posted, about that design being "from a greek person so all greeks should support him" etc. Here http://www.fatsimare.net/profile/forum/viewtopic.php?p=79458 is an example of a post that even mentions the artist's name - even though the names were not supposed to be reveiled until the end of the contest. And with a total of only 141,675 votes cast, such a campaign may actually have been successful ...

Christian

I guess it would have been something like that, to cause such a sway.

Most of the top 5 issues in the UK's on-line petition system are things that are entirely made up, and then chain mailed around. Just shows what a bunch of gullible idiots people are here.

Still, I cant help but think he took all of 5 seconds to design that coin

So for the efforts of people in a small country with a not well designed coin, the whole EU suffers. You asked for it, you got it, Toyota.

Here is a nice visualization (not mine) of the design. I still don't like this "stickman" style but, well ...



left: design from the European Commission's website / right: the actual coin, or rather what it will probably look like

Christian

Shiiineeyyy!

What?!?!? England are part of the EU? First I've heard...



Most of us English folk know we are but, unfortunately, many won't admit it! I like the idea of a European Community but not that play-school designed Euro coin...

Clive.

You're not alone. Hard to tell whether that design would have won without that "Vote Greek" campaign (see post #34), but it seems we are stuck with it. By the way, Lolo posted an updated version of his visualization, with "EMU" in German ("WWU") and an added mintmark; see image above. Still, I wonder how many people know what that abbreviation actually means ...

Christian

Hey Tabbs, don't save any with me in mind please. I think I better stick to the German designed coins.

Well, I will certainly get one of these, as I basically collect all coins that are legal tender in the entire currency union. Also, I don't care about what passport a coin designer has, but I may well skip €2 pieces that I find too expensive. (Monaco!) What I may do in this case, however, is limit my "type based" collection to just one of the common 2009 issues, instead of getting all 15 (or 16) versions. People who collect all German mintmarks would have to get even 19 or 20 ... nah, not me.

Order preferences for 2009 noted.

Christian