Greek euro coins feature a unique design for each of the eight coins. They were all designed by Georgios Stamatopoulos with the minor coins depicting Greek ships, the middle ones portraying famous Greeks and the two large denominations showing images of Greek history and

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

. All designs feature the 12 stars of the EU, the year of imprint and a tiny symbol of the

Bank of Greece The Bank of Greece ( el, Τράπεζα της Ελλάδος , ΤτΕ) is the central bank of Greece. Its headquarters is located in Athens on Panepistimiou Street, but it also has several branches across the country. It was founded in 192 ...

. Uniquely, the value of the coins is expressed on the national side in the Greek alphabet, as well as being on the common side in the Roman alphabet. The euro cent is known as the '' lepto'' (λεπτό; plural ''lepta'', λεπτά) in Greek.

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

did not enter the

Eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU pol ...

until 2001 and was not able to start minting coins as early as the other eleven member states, so a number of coins circulated in 2002 were not minted in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

but in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

(€1 and €2 – mint mark ''S''), France (1c, 2c, 5c, 10c and 50c – mint mark ''F'') and Spain (20c – mint mark ''E''). The coins minted in Athens for the euro introduction in 2002, as well as all the subsequent Greek euro coins, carry only the Greek mint mark.

Greek euro design

For images of the common side and a detailed description of the coins, see euro coins.

Circulating mintage quantities

The following table shows the mintage quantity for all Greek euro coins, per denomination, per year (the numbers are represented in millions).

Greek starter kit

In 2001, the

issued starter kits for the introduction of the Euro.

Identifying marks

Commemorative coins

Greece has a good collection of euro commemorative coins, mainly in silver although a few coins have also been minted in gold. Their face value range from €10 to €200. This is mainly done as a legacy of an old national practice of minting gold and silver coins. These coins are not really intended to be used as means of payment, so generally they do not circulate. Here you can find some samples: File:2003 Greece 200 Euro 75 anniversary of Bank of Greece front.jpg, Gold, 200 euro, 75th anniversary of Bank of Greece (2003) File:2006 Greece 10 Euro Patras front.jpg, Silver, 10 euro, Patras European Capital of Culture (2006) File:2008 Greece 10 euro Acropolis back.jpg, Silver, 10 euro, Acropolis Museum (2008) File:€2 commemorative coin Greece 2007 TOR.jpg, 50th Anniversary of the Signature of the Treaty of Rome (2007)

References

External links

European Central Bank – Greece
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greek Euro Coins Euro coins by issuing country Euro coins

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...