This year's Europe Week began with a little numismatic sensation. Euroland will, in 2007, issue its first €2 commem that has the same design in all countries of the currency union. The coin commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome which established what later became the European Union.

More information at
http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avservices/photo/..._en.cfm?id=1024

Christian

Here is another image that shows some more details.



Christian

How nice, everybody issues their coin with Treaty of Rome, it is amazing the French permitted that

Whatever.

So there will be 12 or 13 of these coins -- same design but with the issuing country indicated. Good timing. I will have to rethink my 2€ Commemorative Album plan.

I like the design very much.

i like the design, too, but i think they should all just say "ISSUING COUNTRY" ...

Well I do like the design and can say this will be another MUST HAVE for my $2 euro collection. Living in the States makes it a little difficult to keep up with all the news so I have to make an extra effort to get my paws on many of the Euro commemoratives. I could never have got my euro collection started without the help of so many great collectors, and now friends, in Europe and I do appreciate each and every one of you (them) very much for your efforts in helping this Hoosier build a collection I can be proud of!

actually, cp has been a good source of this sort of info ...

Interesting idea!

I assume this commem will be in addition to each country's choice to issue an an individual €2 next year? Or will this replace either the normal country specific issue or country specific commem?

Actually I don't know yet which countries/mints will participate in that program. The Netherlands, for example, cannot use that design unless they change their law (muntwet) which specifies that the head of state has to be depicted on every coin issued by the Royal Dutch Mint. Not sure about Luxembourg, but their Henri seems to be on all LU coins ... For the other euro countries that should not be a problem.

The design is of course a pattern only; "Treaty of Rome - 50 Years" is likely to be replaced by whatever that means in the languages of the participating countries. And "Issuing Country" would, well ... If Greece participates, they would probably add the face value in Greek characters, and Germany ("Bundesrepublik Deutschland") would have to resort to a tiny font size for the country name, hehe.

In case the pattern "behind" the treaty document looks familiar - that is also depicted on the Italian 50 ct circulation coins. Michelangelo designed that pavement of the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome. And it's right there, on the Capitol in Rome (specifically, in the "Sala degli Oriazi e Curiazi" of the Palazzo dei Conservatori), where the Treaties were signed.

As for whether this coin will replace any others ... maybe so, maybe not. For example, I would find it hard to imagine that any of the three non-EU euro countries uses that design. If the issuing countries could use their "commem contingents" only, Greece would have to stay out anyway (due to the issue volume in 2004). Germany may stay out since a €10 Treaties of Rome collector coin was planned for 2007 anyway. Guess that in the next couple of days we will hear more about this €2 commemorative program.

Christian

This is a suggestion of a "localized" piece (for Italy), not from any official source but from "frizio", an Italian designer. He also used a new look of the common side, similar to the official one that the EU agreed upon last year. Looks neat.

(Edit: Here are two design examples, one for France, one for Italy.)



Christian

I'm sure that if FRance will participate, they will add mint mark and mint master mark to the design.

Yes, I think so too. Same with Belgium for example. But as for these designs, "frizio" simply wanted to show what the coin could look like in different languages and with different country names ...

Some more "localizations" are here:
http://www.lamoneta.it/index.php?showtopic=10917&st=15

But keep in mind that at this stage we do not know for sure how many (and which) countries will actually participate in that issue program.

(Link updated)

Christian

And would they have 2? Belgie and Belgique?

Or maybe even three: "België" (nl), "Belgique" (fr), "Belgien" (de). Those are the ones that they have one their collector coins.

In the years of the franc/frank, they had just the Dutch and French versions (German is a fairly recent addition), and in many cases two different pieces were issued. Guess you know about that. Whether that could be done here, I don't know. What would Finland do if they participated in this program?

Christian

I would guess that a single hy "Suomi - Finland" would be the likely result.

I love these designs. I believe the year 2007 will be very expensive for all Rollcollectors

Marvin

Seems that the Netherlands are in. The Dutch government plans to modify the coinage act (muntwet) accordingly:

http://www.minfin.nl/nl/actueel/nieuwsberi...nkingsmunt.html
http://www.rtl.nl/(/financien/rtlz/home/)/...enkingsmunt.xml

(Articles in Dutch.) Currently NL has a minority government, but I suppose that the parliament will not be against the bill. I hope, that is ...

Christian

Germany is in, too. There will be three 2 Eurocoins in 2007.

The regular 2 Eurocoin which is minted since 2002


The german state-serie which was started in 2006


And the third coin, or the second commemorative...

According to the EC site there will be 13 countries admissable ( 13th is Slovania)

The Belgian coin will have Flemish and French text


http://www.numismatico.de/files/50-anni-bel_188.gif

This seems the Finnish proposal

http://www.numismatico.de/files/50-anni-fin_995.gif

Yes, I assume that is what the pieces wil look like. But keep in mind that these designs, made by Fabrizio Annovi (frizio), are not official ...

Christian

Interesting. Although I must admit that I would be suprised to see "Suomen Tasavalta" (Republic of Finland) used. Its use began to be abandoned in 1972 with the new 5 markkaa coin, which replaced that phrasing with "Suomi Finland". It was completely gone after the coin reforms of 1990/1993. But one never knows.

These "localized" designs by Frizio are merely supposed to give people an idea of what the coins could look like. After all, the design officially presented by the European Commission was in English only, and with "Issuing Country" instead of the country name.

Frizio also designed a Dutch version, for example, with the text "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden". Then somebody mentioned that this is the name of the entire kingdom (including the overseas territories which have their own currencies), and that it will probably be "Nederland" only. In my opinion Frizio did a nice job, showing the possible appearance of a Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, etc. coin being issued on this occasion. Now let's see what the mints will come up with.

Christian

Are these going to be circulating commemoratives or NCLT trash?

Most will be circulation pieces, some may be NCLT, none will be trash.

The €2 pieces are intended to be circulating commemoratives, and most euro countries issue them that way. But there are others that sell them in coin cards or folders only.

Update: According to this article http://www.mdm.de/shop/action/magazine?pageid=10804 (in German, scroll down a little) all 13 EU euro countries will take part in the issue program.

Christian

Seems that the five German mint locations will each make six million pieces:

http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/cln_...709__PM116.html

Interesting, by the way, that this very media release was worded a little differently earlier today. It first said that the coin had been designed by the Italian artist 'frizio' (see above). Then frizio wrote in another forum that he had nothing to do with the actual design and that he had just created the unofficial 'localizations'. Duh. The release text has now been fixed ...

Christian

Poor Frizio! Now even the Mint of Finland used the "localized designs" that he made. He was quite surprised when somebody pointed that out to him ...

http://www.numismatico.de/files/finrom_823.jpg (~400K)
http://www.rahapajamoneta.fi/fi/dokumentit...oneta4_2006.pdf (~8 megs, -> p. 10)

Edit: Today the coin catalog author Schön posted an image of an actual €2 (DE, J) commem here:
http://www.numismatico.de/files/de_2007_rv_j_482.jpg
Hope the link works; maybe you need to be logged in over there, maybe not.

Christian

I think it's a terrific design. Can't wait to get them.

Hungary plans to participate in the program too. While not a euro country, it will issue a circulating commem with basically the same design:


http://www.numismatico.de/files/kkk_448.jpg

This will be a 50 forint coin, to be issued in March.
http://english.mnb.hu/Resource.aspx?Resour..._evi_program_en
(Commemorative Coins Schedule 2007, PDF, ~400K)

Christian

Luxembourg used a trick. Seems they insisted on having their head of state on the coin ... and the result is a piece with a latent image.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/8366/lu...hevertrayy9.jpg

Christian

I have another image of the Luxemburg coin. Don't know if it's the final design.

That was one of Frizio's works, I think. He made a whole series of "Treaty of Rome" designs, based on the one presented by the EU last year. His latest suggestion was a piece "for" Belgium with the inscriptions in Latin, to avoid the language issue, hehe. Apart from those, he has made several designs http://spazioinwind.libero.it/friziofrizio/eurofantasy.html ... neat ones, bad ones, funny ones.

Christian

No, it seems that this name is not used on the Treaty of Rome commem either. This is what the Finnish piece will apparently look like: http://www.numismatico.de/files/fi-2euro2007rom_159.jpg

Christian

Oh, and Belgium apparently participates with a tri- or even quadrilingual piece. According to what Gerhard Schön (the catalog author) posted to a German forum, the BE piece will say PACTVM ROMANVM QVINQVAGENARIVM (yup, Latin) with the country name in French, Dutch and German: BELGIQUE · BELGIË · BELGIEN). Above the treaty document it says EUROPA/E which works for all Belgian languages ...

Christian

I wonder what the Irish one will look like.Ireland has 2 official languages - English & irish-Gaelic (Erse).Perhaps the Irish one will be inscribed in both languages,or solely in English,or even solely in Erse.

Aidan.

Judging from what Ireland has done so far, regarding its recent coins, I assume that the country name will be "Eire" but the other inscriptions will be in English. On the other hand, Irish/Gaeilge is now an official EU language, so the government may want to emphasize that aspect and make the piece bilingual. Have not seen the Irish design yet ...

Christian

Christian,I will end up getting the Irish one,as there has been very few circulating commemoratives since Ireland changed over to decimal currency back in 1971.

It would be nice to see an Irish coin inscribed in Erse,apart from the country name.

Aidan.

Aidan, you may also be interested in the contribution from Cyprus. Like Hungary, the country does not have the euro (in the case of CY that would be "not yet") but also issues a coin with the common theme, and a face value of 1 pound.

The coin says, in the upper half of the ring, ΣΥΝΘΗΚΗ ΤΗΣ ΡΩΜΗΣ - 50 ΧΡΟΝΙΑ and and in the lower part ROMA ANLAȘMASI - 50 YIL. Above the treaty and the Campidoglio pattern, "EUROPE", below "£1".

Christian

News about the Irish piece: According to what Gerhard Schön wrote in a German forum, the text will indeed be in Gaelic only.

conradh na róimhe
50 bliain
an eoraip
éire 2007

Have not seen a picture yet, but that sounds cool.

Christian

And this is a (tiny) first picture of the Dutch piece. Apparently they use "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" as the country name on the coin.


Source: http://nl.knm.nl/domains/knm/content//2EU_Rome100.jpg

Christian

The designs is great, but this year will be expensive for me

Not just for you. On the other hand, these Treaty of Rome coins will all be made in relatively large quantities: Fewer in the smaller countries (Slovenia 400,000 - Luxembourg 2,000,000), more in the bigger countries (France and Spain 9.6 million each, Germany 30 million). The number does not exactly depend on the population but also on whether a country plans to issue a regular €2 coin (or a second €2 commem) this year or not.

You may also want to check out the swap meets right here (we have members from several euro countries) and/or of German/European forums such as muenzen.net, Numismatico or Euroswapper. So unless you have to get proof or prooflike pieces, that collection should be affordable ...

Christian

The zwei-euro.com website just posted nice closeup pictures of the latent image on the Luxembourg coin:

http://www.zwei-euro.com/2-euro/luxemburg/...ramm-herzog.jpg
(with Grand Duke Henri visible)
http://www.zwei-euro.com/2-euro/luxemburg/...ramm-normal.jpg
(with the "regular" design)

Christian

Update - Finland

According to Gerhard Schön (author of various coin catalogs) the edge inscription of the Finnish coin is "ROMFÖRDRAGET - 50 ÅR - EUROPA". On the obverse of the coin you have the text in Finnish ("ROOMAN SOPIMUS - 50 V - EUROOPPA"); the edge has the Swedish language version.

Update - Germany

The mintage figures for the five German mints, compiled by euronumis.com ...

A (Berlin) 1,165,000
D (Munich) 14,665,000
F (Stuttgart) 8,165,000
G (Karlsruhe) 5,165,000
J (Hamburg) 1,665,000


Christian

The European Commission's website now has detailed info about the mintages, and also nice large pictures.

Belgium (5 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_be.jpg
Germany (30 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_de.jpg
Ireland (4.82 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_ie.jpg
Greece (4 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_el.jpg
Spain (8 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_es.jpg
France (9.4 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_fr.jpg
Italy (5 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_it.jpg
Luxembourg (2.1 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_lu.jpg
Netherlands (6.333 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_nl.jpg
Austria (9 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_at.jpg
Portugal (2 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_pt.jpg
Slovenia (0.4 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_si.jpg
Finland (1.4 million coins)
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n.../2007tor_fi.jpg

Christian

The coin(s) will officially be issued tomorrow. There won't be too many places, though, where you can get them on a Sunday. In Germany, for example, some pieces are available at a coin show in Stuttgart. (Edit: see pictures from muenzblog.de below)

The actual circulation pieces can be had from the usual sources - central and commercial banks etc. - as from Monday. In some member states it may take longer, though, until all pieces are issued.

Here are the coins and, at the bottom, links to a press release and the EU Official Journal:
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/n...mmemorative2007



Christian

Accoding to the KNM, these will be available from today, in the post offices.

So I went there, but our local post office didn't order them..

Will try another post office later this week.

I might go for a whole roll

got my Slovenian issue today, very happy.

Yep, I have that one too. For me that was the most expensive of the ToR pieces ...

Later this week I should also get the ones from Cyprus and Hungary. Basically the same design, but not euro coins of course.

Christian