[FONT=Arial]Well what do you think? I think the Euro has NO personality, its ugly. I was in Italy this past summer and of course had to use the Euro, my first experience. Its not confusing since it is based on the deimal system, but they have no personality. They all look alike (yes there is a difference in the 1 and 2 Euros) but they are not at all intersting to look at. I think they (the European union) should say goodbye to the Euro and go back to their old currency. First of all, each counrty said who they are with their currency. I think its important for a nation to reflect itself with something everyone understand, money.

What do you think? Hey, Frenchman, Italian, German and all the other countries that got suckered into this ugly coinage, lets hear from you.[FONT=Arial]

Is there supposed to be a picture with this one?

Cheryl you can google for euro and get lots of pictures.

I personaly like the euro. I like the design... I collect them, I want them all.

Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing your opinion.

-Bobby

I'm not a big fan of them myself.

Italy and (dare I say it) France used to have absolutely beautiful coin designs. I saved all the coins I brought back from trips there in the 1990s, and the sower design of the 1/2 franc through 5 franc coins were so beautiful and reminiscent of Weinman's designs in the US. And Italy always had such wonderful designs that captured the spirit of the golden age of Rome. From what I've seen, the euro designs are rather plain and flat, and more like bus tokens than coins.

I honestly don't think you truely understand what the situation was before the pre-euro. Assuming if you are a traveller going around Europe for a holiday, let's say from the UK, going past France, Belgium, Netherlands Germany, and then southwards, to Austria, Italy, back up to Swiss and then France, possibly Spain etc.

Do you understand how terrible the exchange rate was? There was nearly *ZERO* competition during that time and so, if you had US dollar, you can expect from 5% - 8% commission fees depending in what country you were in, but if you had other currenies, let's say Japanese yen - (hey, does all tourists have US dollars?), commission fees go from around 10%-15+% in some places! But do the Europeans care about such loss? Of course not. As long as you waste your money there, they are happy. Credit card at that time in some countries weren't too popular either.

While it might be fun as a coin collector, it was a nightmare trying to keep away the pesky changes, specially when you had to watch out what you are trying to pay for in their national currency. You had the painful 5 German mark coins, as if you tried to keep a "type set" of it, you probably can get up getting at least 5 different coins, well I did, which is around 20 dollars (I think) gone there. Add up other coins and they all count and you have a bagful of coins, probably easily totaling over a few tens of dollars in non-convertible currency.

To add to the headache, when you try to buy souvenirs or other products, you have to have a calculator or an excellent sense of mind to estimate how much that was back in your local currency so that you can decide whether it is too expensive or not. Most certainly, you would have a list of currency exchange rate somewhere. Try to grab an idea of how much it was in French francs or Italian lira.

It was hilarious, or actually painfully annoying, of how a beggar kid in France asking for donation, "kindly" refused my donation of Italian liras since I had a pocketful of them. Great, donations aren't happily accepted. Isn't that insulting? Perhaps, taking a pity on a beggar is one of the biggest mistakes in my life, but I probably will not forget that event.

Thanks to the currency issue, I don't think I had a great time there as everything seemed to be too expensive. If such currencies are to be "pretty" and yet costly, I would rather be happy not to visit there in the first place - cost is one major factor.

I think we're talking design here, GX not economic logistics.

Well, i think they were an improvement in relation to the last Escudo coin designs...
...but how hard could that be?

And well, at least they didn't made 50 different designs for the most used and common denomination with clipart designs that look like money making FAO coins from Uganda or Liberia...

NO, WAIT!

...they're issuing 2 Euro Commem. coins!

Jose

I am not too sure if I can dare to say that design does *NOT* come at a price.

With the removal of silvers from major European currencies during the 60s, most designs that were meant for silver were struck on Ni-cupro planchets, and sadly French and Swiss francs are excellent examples. Similarly, the Italian 100 lira was struck on smaller planchets, which I personally didn't appericate.

Indeed, modern coinage are somewhat disappointing, thanks to the cheap and hard metals that the world are forced to use and budget mints striking them. I am wondering if there are any outstanding designs ever since 2000, i.e. after the introduction of Euros.

The problem with the Euro is the same problem as with coins of Monarchs and, to a slightly lesser extent, our own dead Presidents in the US. When you mandate one side, it limits your design possibilities and the other side needs to be awesome to make up for it. There are some of the Euro coins that have done a great job with some of their available side and there are others that haven't. My opinion, of course.

Thanks for the History Lesson. I was commenting about the designs not the currency exchange problems.
come to think of it, some contries are having a problem with the value of the inflated Euro. Unlike the US where we move from one state to the next and use the same currency exchange as well as its value, Europe is made up of several different countries; all of which like their autonomy. Until they give that independance up, they will always in a battle of their economies.
(i.e. What is good for France may not be good for Italy, thus the Euro can be inflated and hurt the economy of the lesser nation.

Now that we gave eachother a "lesson," the coin is still (F)ugly!!!

It's all a matter of taste.

There are pretty dull designs and there are designs that I like.

But, the same goes for the pre-euro coinage in most of the countries.

My thoughts also.

It occurs to me that I agree with Stujoe almost 100% of the time. Everything exceptBlack Olives....go figure.

I'm okay with them. I actually like how the brass coins are all thick, unlink many other country's minor coins. But the low relief is a bit of a bummer.

You need to seek profesional help with that. The black olive part, I mean.

exactly. and what's worse is that you could pass through several countries in a day, and get stuck with exchanging currrency at every stop ...

some of the designs are dull, but they're honestly not nearly as dull as our dead presidents. the state quarters thing has gotten a lot of attention for a lot of reasons, but the main reason, i think, is variety ...