hey, How do you guys get the coins from other countries? surely you dont travel around to get them!?

Well, you could theoretically wait until they show up in circulation at a place near you. Problem is, despite the relatively high mintage figures they won't be in everybody's pockets ...

Sure, if you live in, say, Rotterdam (NL), it would not be very far or difficult to go and pick some pieces up in, say, Antwerpen (BE). Some collectors even went to central/local banks during their Easter vacation. But most people just buy or swap. Here at CoinPeople for example, Mortyr2012 and I had offered some German pieces a month ago (I don't have any more of those), Trantor_3 has and offers the Dutch version, and I think that Tane still has some Finnish pieces.

Other options are swapping in euro-specific forums such as Euroswapper ... or buying the pieces from coin dealers. If you just want the "raw" pieces (not coin cards or folders), the €2 Treaty of Rome commems are not really expensive. The only exception is the Slovenian coin, due to the somewhat lower mintage.

Christian

thanks a million for your help. Just one last question, d oyou know if all the European central banks sell coins over teh internet or phone?

Some do, some don't. The German central bank does not sell any to collectors; it had unmixed ToR coin rolls at the local branch offices during the first couple of days after the first issue date (25 March). The German numismatic office (VfS) only sells packed sets.

The Dutch mint (KNM) sells most of the issues but charges about €5 per piece (almost €30 for SI). The BCL (Luxembourg) does sell rolls of its €2 coins. In France the distribution has not really started yet; the mint is still busy making these. And the Irish central bank ... well, you will know better than me how it's done in Ireland.

Christian

Side note: Got the £1 coin from Cyprus now. While the €2 commems are made for circulation, that one is not ... but it sure is impressive. Attached is a thumbnail image showing a German piece and the Cyprus giant; a larger picture is here:

http://cfmedia.gmxhome.de/pix/vertrag_de_cy.jpg

Christian

I've prepared some packages to send today, with silver coins. They will be accompanied by the dutch version of the Treaty of Rome commem

I just got a Greek version of these and I agree that it is a very good design and a KEWL design concept.



The ECB has certainly done a good job of making their Euro coinage interesting and fun, despite the reservations that I kept reading when the original designs were unveiled.

BTW, is Germany indeed doing a 'State €2 Coins' program like what the USA is doing with its Quarters? How many different designs will this create every year and will their regular 'Eagle' design be continued during that program?

Mike

The Irish version looks neat too, mostly due to the font they used. Have not got that one yet though. By the way, strictly speaking the ECB does not have anything to do with the designs of the coins. That is the job of the member states, with the European Commission and the Council being responsible for the "framework".

Apart from common issues like the "Treaty of Rome" pieces, each euro country can basically issue one commemorative coin per year. As for the German States series, see http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?showtopic=3933 for more info ...

Christian

I'm almost complete now:

Belgium
Finland
France
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
The Netherlands
Austria
Portugal
Slovenia
Spain

Oh and I also have the Hungary 50 Forint

Anyone here seing the same design differences between the coins of the different countries?

And I don't mean the obvious differences like mint marks, and the text on the coin.

My belgium one has the clearest design, the highest relief of them all. The autographs in the book are raised and very clear to see. It also has a different "star" in the background: it's not flat but the lines have distinct higher edges and a lower middle, more like a double line.

The lines of the star in the background on the spanish one are thinner than on the other ones.

The italian one is by far the flattest and appears to be weakly struck. The autographs are very unclear and even seem to be incuse....

Anyone else notice differences?

Agreed, same here - and apparently most Italian ToR coins are like that. If I was cynical, I'd say the Zecca wants collectors to buy the proof pieces and made the circulation pieces "lousy" on purpose.

The Belgian coins look neat indeed as far as the signatures are concerned. The common side looks a little odd though; the map does not really have those "dots" (like 'em or not) that the new €2 coins usually have. Germany (Karlsruhe) is OK; heard that the ones from Hamburg are not that nice but don't have any of those.

My Treaty of Rome collection is now complete, including the non-euro pieces from Cyprus and Hungary. The coin from Romania would be interesting too, but with a mintage of 500 only? I know that such low figures (500, or even 250 in some cases) are common with RO commems, but one might have thought that with such a European theme that policy could have been modified. Well, they did not, so for me that means ... nah, thanks.

Christian

Hmm, I "failed" to look at the common side. At first glance, I'd say you're right, but at a closer look (with a magnifier) they are there, yet a lot more shallow than on the other ones.



I have mine almost complete as well. I still need to get a German one, am working on that. I never aimed at the non-euro coins, but by surprise I did get one . I'm not pursuing to get the other ones, though.

Around ebay, the RO commem is 130-150 euro. Not too much for so low mintage.