€2 Commemorative Coins

€2 commemorative coins are special euro coins minted and issued by member states of the eurozone since 2004 as legal tender in all eurozone member states. Only the national obverse sides of the coins differ; the common reverse sides do not. The coins typically commemorate the anniversaries of historical events or draw attention to current events of special importance. In 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2022, there were common commemorative coins with only different national inscriptions.

The number of commemorative coins is limited to two (until 2012 to one) per country per year (in addition to any common issue or the emissions that have as a reason a vacant Head of State). The total number of commemorative coins put into circulation per year is also limited. In addition, the commemorative coins must respect the design standards stipulated for the common €2 coins, with limitations on the designs to guarantee uniformity.

Up to end of 2021, four hundred and twenty-eight variations of €2 commemorative coins have been minted. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, San Marino and the Vatican City are the only countries to have released at least one commemorative coin every year since 2004.

The €2 commemorative coins have become collectibles, but are different from commemorative coins with a face value different from €2, which are officially designated as "collector coins" and usually made of precious metals.

Regulations and restrictions

Commemorative coins shall bear a different national design from that of the regular coins and shall only commemorate subjects of major national or European relevance. Commemorative coins issued collectively by all Member States whose currency is the euro shall only commemorate subjects of the highest European relevance and their design shall be without prejudice to the possible constitutional requirements of these Member States. The 2-euro coin constitutes the most suitable denomination for this purpose, principally on account of the large diameter of the coin and its technical characteristics, which offer adequate protection against counterfeiting.

The basis for the euro coins is derived from an European recommendation from 2003, which allowed changing the national obverse sides of euro coins from 1 January 2004 onwards.

Regarding them, a series of restrictions apply:

* Commemorative coins have a different national face than usual and keep the common face.
* They are intended to commemorate some relevant event or personality at a national or European level.
* Each State can only issue one commemorative coin per year and always in the format of 2 euros. Since 2013 two commemorative coins per year are allowed.
* The joint commemorative issues carried out by all the States of the eurozone (that is to say, excluding the euro-issuing States that do not belong to the EU), are additional to the emissions carried out by each State individually.
* In the event that the State Headquarters is vacant or provisionally occupied, that State may issue an additional commemorative coin.
* The legend engraved on the edge of the commemorative euro coins intended for circulation must be the same as that on the normal euro coins intended for circulation.
* They have limited the maximum volume of emission.

The total number of such coins put into circulation per year should not surpass the higher of the following two numbers:

* 0.1% of the total number of €2 coins put into circulation by all members of the eurozone. This limit can exceptionally be increased to up to 2.0 per cent if the coin commemorates a very important and noteworthy event; in this case, the member state issuing this higher number of coins should refrain from putting any commemorative coins into circulation for the following four years.
* 5.0% of the total number of €2 coins put into circulation by the member state issuing the €2 commemorative coin.

Since 2005, the recommendations for the design of the national sides of all the coins have been modified, which has also affected the designs of the €2 commemorative coins of the following years. See Euro coins for more information.

Finally, also take into account that the different States must inform each other of the new draft designs (both of the "regular" coins and the 2 euro commemorative coins) as well as the European Council and the European Commission, which must give your approval. One consequence of the above was the case of the 2 euro commemorative coin that Belgium planned to issue in 2015 on the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, which caused complaints from France and Belgium's resignation from issuing such a coin. However, Belgium issued a collector's coin of 2.50 euros, taking advantage of the fact that these coins are not submitted to the prior information of their draft designs.

Issues

Twenty-three countries have independently issued €2 commemorative coins (Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the Vatican City), with Greece being the first country to issue this type of coin. There have also been five common €2 commemorative coins issued by all eurozone member states:
* 50 years Treaty of Rome in 2007.
* 10 years Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU) in 2009.
* 10 years Euro Coins and Banknotes in 2012.
* 30 years of the Flag of Europe in 2015.
* 35 years of the Erasmus Programme in 2022.

Issued designs are made public in the ''Official Journal of the European Union''.

2004 coinage

2005 coinage

2006 coinage

2007 coinage

2007 commonly issued coin

2008 coinage

2009 coinage

2009 commonly issued coin

2010 coinage

2011 coinage

2012 coinage

2012 commonly issued coin

2013 coinage

2014 coinage

2015 coinage

2015 commonly issued coin

2016 coinage

2017 coinage

2018 coinage

2019 coinage

2020 coinage

2021 coinage

2022 coinage

2022 commonly issued coin

2023 coinage

2024 coinage

2025 coinage

Commonly Issued Coins

2013 50th anniversary of the signing of the Élysée Treaty

2018 The 100th anniversary of the foundation of the independent Baltic states

2019 30 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall

French series 2024 Summer Olympics

German series

Bundesländer series I

Germany started the commemorative coin series ' (The 16 States of the Federal Republic of Germany) in 2006, to continue until 2021. The year in which the coin for a specific state is issued coincides with that state's Presidency of the ''Bundesrat''. In 2018, Daniel Günther, the Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein, became the President of the Bundesrat for a one-year term. As a Schleswig-Holstein coin had already been minted in 2006, it was decided to delay the release of the following three states' coins by a year. Instead of honouring a state in 2019, the minted coin commemorates 70 years since the constitution of the German Federal Council or Bundesrat was adopted. The last three coins of the series were therefore postponed to 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. The coins issued are:

The original designs for these states were changed and were as follows:
* 2008 Hamburg: Landungsbrücken
* 2010 Free Hanseatic City of Bremen: Bremen City Hall not including Bremen Roland
* 2012 Bavaria: Munich Frauenkirche
* 2013 Baden-Württemberg Heidelberg Castle
* 2014 Lower Saxony: Hanover New City Hall
* 2015 Hesse: Römer in Frankfurt am Main
* 2018 Berlin: Reichstag

The series is similar to the United States' 50 State Quarters series, which saw fifty coins issued for its fifty constituent states, five per year between 1999 and 2008. A separate program saw six coins issued in 2009 for the District of Columbia and five territories of the United States.

Bundesländer series II

Latvian Historical Regions series

Lithuanian

Ethnographical Regions series

Including Samogitia, Aukštaitija, Dzūkija, Suvalkija and Lithuania Minor

Luxembourgish Grand-Ducal Dynasty series

Maltese series

Maltese constitutional history

From Children in Solidarity

(featuring the Role of the Malta Community Chest Fund in Society)

Maltese Prehistoric Sites

Spanish UNESCO World Heritage Sites series

Spain started the commemorative coin series (UNESCO World Heritage) in 2010, commemorating all of Spain's UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which could continue until 2058. The order in which the coin for a specific site is issued coincides with the order in which they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. The coins issued are:

References

External links

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{{Euro topics

Euro commemorative coins
Two-base-unit coins