OK Toxic or not I have been happily adding my euros to Omnicoin and today have started with my lower values 1c to 50c. Now to be honest for the most part they are damn boaring with the exception so far of Greece

Sets added today are

Cyprus 2008
Malta 2008
Luxembourg 2003
Greece 2002

the Cyprus set consists of two designs The Mouflon (Some type of goat LOL) & Kyrenia ship, 4th century BC. The 1c/2c/5c that I have are very bad examples so they will get replaced in time

Malta again consists of two designs Mnajdra temples & Coat of arms of Malta

Luxembourg 2003 all depict a Effigy of Grand Duke Henri

And finaly today Greece 2002
1 cent
Athenian trireme of the 5th century BC.

2 cents
corvette (or dromon) of the early 19th century.

5 cents
modern tanker, symbol of Greek enterprise.

10 cents
Rigas Velestinlis-Fereos (1757–1798), Greek poet.
Globe & value

20 cents
Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776–1831), Greek statesman.

50 cents
Eleftherios Venizelos (1864–1936), prominent Greek politician

Have a peek and let me know what you think

Very nice set indeed. In my opinion, the Italian pieces are best - like Greece, they picked eight different designs for the eight denominations, but (taking all eight into account) I like the themes from Italy a little better. The other eight-coin sets are from Slovenia (great too), San Marino (nice, except they hardly ever occur in circulation), and Austria (most are attractive). The worst in terms of variety are Belgium and Ireland, with only one design for all denominations. The Netherlands have two designs, and then comes a group of eight countries with three designs each - most of them corresponding to the three different common reverses. And on top we have the five with eight designs ...

(Edit: Forgot to add Monaco, three designs, and the Vatican, one design in three variations. And if Slovakia joins next year, which is pretty likely, there will be one more "three designs" country.)

Christian

This is what I have to date, I still need the odd coin to finish off sets and a couple like Belgium & France are composit sets that I am still working on

Pre 2007 Full or partial Set's
Austria
Belgium
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Spain


Post 2006 Full Set's
Cyprus
Finland
Malta
Slovenia

Must say the Greek €1 wins the award for creepiest design.

I hope the UK goes for a full set, but I'd guess the importance of reminding everyone we have a monarchy would win the day

What that cute little Owl Just added the following three sets to the online collection, the Spamish set as you will see need some work doing to it LOL The Eire set is one design and Spain / Germany have two designs.
I do like both the Brandenburg gate & the Cathedral designs quite a bit

2002 Eire
1c to 50c all with the Traditional Irish Harp

Spain variouse dates
2 x 19999
2 x 2000
2 x 2001

1c/2c/5c
The Obradoiro façade of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

10c/20c/50c
Miguel de Cervantes, famous Spanish writer


2002 Germany

1c/2c/5c
Oak twig, featured on the former pfennig.

10c/20c/50c
Brandenburg Gate

As usual to view just folow the link in my sig

Discussing "UK euros" is kind of moot - first, by and large the British are not interested. Second, the members of the currency union should IMO be committed to monetary and maybe even further economic integration which is tough anyway but would be extremely difficult to accomplish with the UK. Besides, I don't even want to think about monetary agreements with places such as Guernsey, Jersey or the ever so prolific Isle of Man. Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican are tough enough. Now the Greek €1 coin (which features an Athenian tetradrachmon) I like, and Zeus with Europa (GR €2) is nice too. But Leonardo's Vitruvian Man (IT €1) is still my favorite piece. Another set that I like a lot is the three seals on the Portuguese coins.

Christian

Christian I totaly agree with what you just said The IoM would go insane if they were limited in the number of issues they could produce :hysterical:LOL Have just been looking at my Portugal set and also agree on that one, the seals realy do look nice

Just a quick side note: The Irish harp (in your latest OmniCoin images) is upside down. The country name should be on the left, the year on the right ...

Christian

LOL you know what you are quite right they are upside down

Three more sets added today and I have to say I do like the designs on all of these

France
2000
2E Stylised tree contained in a hexagon with the motto Liberté Egalité Fraternité

2001
50c The sower, a theme carried over from the former franc

1999
20c The sower, a theme carried over from the former franc
10c The sower, a theme carried over from the former franc
5c Portrait of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic
2c Portrait of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic
1c Portrait of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic

Italy 2002
50c Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius
20c Sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space by Umberto Boccioni
10c The Birth of Venus by painter Sandro Botticelli
5c Colosseum in Rome
2c Mole Antonelliana, symbolising the city of Turin
1c Castel del Monte, a 13th century castle in Apulia

Slovinia 2007
50c Triglav, constellation of Cancer
20c pair of Lipizzaner horses
10c Jože Plečnik's idea for the national parliament, with the inscription "Katedrala svobode" (Cathedral of freedom)
5c Ivan Grohar's painting A Sower sowing stars
2c Prince's stone, where Carantanian dukes were installed
1c stork

Well lucky for me I don't have any real assets, cash or otherwise. So all this week I have been kicking back and laughing at the Brits. Pound is following the dollar down the crapper, yesterday the pound hit an all time low against the Euro. People in the UK are too busy looking at the short term and considering themselves part of an empire that is long gone. When I do start saving, I'll b trying to get a Eurozone savings account.

I think Jersey and Gurnsey at best would be looking at a joint issue. If so the Falklands perhaps getting an issue. Gibraltar? Dono.

Isle of Man has been kinda funny, back when we where set to have a referendum they insisted that they would issue their own notes and coins, the ECB said if they do it will be considered forgery and fraud. IoM even suggested that they would keep the "Manx" pound, though really they could not afford to. One thing is for sure, with the Euro their days of coin-whoreing would be over

Don't really think we need to seriously discuss the options of the UK getting the euro - it won't happen, and that is perfectly fine with me. But as for the £ "going down", keep in mind that the central banks in the US and the UK have lowered their interest rates. The ECB is in a difficult situation: On one hand it would make sense to do so too, thus making it less attractive for investors to buy euros. But due to the increasing inflation rate (3.5 percent in March), lowering interest rates is not really an option here.

Quite a few businesses "here" that export to non-EU countries are of course suffering from the expensive euro. Fortunately about 75 percent of German exports, for example, go to other euro countries these days, and I think that exports to the US are in the one-digit range. So there is no reason to panic, but those euro based businesses that actually trade in other currencies a lot will have a harder time now.

It may now be more attractive for businesses/customers in the euro area to buy British products and services, or to invest in Britain. Basically the same has applied to the US for quite a while now. So a "cheap" dollar or pound also has its advantages ...


Depends. The Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey, Man etc.) are not in the European Union, and they can use whatever currency they want. It makes sense for them, of course, to use what the UK uses. But let's assume that the Isle of Man wanted to introduce the euro - it would have to make some monetary agreement with the EU, and that would probably include some kind of limit. That is, the IoM could issue coins worth so and so many euro per year.

Now this would keep them from issuing a plethora of coins. But they could still have circulation coins and €2 commemorative pieces made; all those are legal tender in the entire currency union. Even better (or worse, hehe), the Isle of Man could also make collector coins (which in the euro area are legal tender in the issuing country only, and do not actually circulate), and I am sure they would make use of that option ...

By the way, the Isle of Man actually issued "euro coins" in 1996-1998: five "10 euro" pieces, one "15 euro" piece, and three "50 euro" pieces, all made by the Pobjoy Mint. As far as I know, they even used to be legal tender, worth the equivalent of 1 ECU per "Manx Euro".

Christian

Why? I think it is cool. It is my favorite Euro design