2 Euro commemorative coins

2 Euro

C o m m e m o r a t i v e C o i n s

⇑ 2008 ⇑
2009
Image	Country		Date	Feature	Ref.	Volume
🔎		Common Issue	01 Jan. — 26 Mar. 2009	Ten years of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)	20001 20002 20005	82,484,623	•
	Description : In 1972 the European Exchange Rate Mechanism was created to limit fluctuations between currencies. In 1975 a basket of currencies was used to define the European Currency Unit (ECU) and in 1979 the European Monetary System was created. 1990 saw the start of the first stage of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and in 1994 the second stage, during which the European Monetary Institute prepared for the establishment of the European Central Bank (ECB). In 1996 the European Commission established the currency abbreviation €. In 1999, saw the third stage of EMU, all participating currencies were linked to the euro by exchange rate parity. In 2008 a design competition was held for the EMU Community Edition coin and out of 5 proposals a winner, Georgios Stamatopoulos was determined by an online vote. The design shows a stylised human stick figure on the blank space of an irregularly shaped ancient coin, with the € symbol on the left arm. It symbolises the transition from the bartering of archaic times to European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Below the € symbol are the designer's initials "ΓΣ" and the years "1999‐2009". The Luxembourg coin has a special feature in this series: Luxembourg law stipulates that no national coin may be issued without the portrait of the head of state. Therefore, a portrait of Grand Duke Henri is shown as a latent image above the motif. The non‐euro country Romania has also minted the motif on 10 Lei coins.

🔎		Luxembourg	15 Jan. 2009	90th anniversary of Grand Duchess Charlotte's Accession to the Throne 6th coin of the Grand-Ducal Dynasty series	20001 20002 20005	838,000	•
	Description : The coin, based on a design concept by the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg - BCL (Luxembourg Central Bank), commemorates the 90th anniversary of Grand Duchess Charlotte's accession to the throne on the 14th of January 1919. She took over the throne from her sister Marie‐Adélaide, who abdicated due to political pressure for her role during the German occupation in the First World War, and held the Luxembourg office until the 12th of November 1964. The coin shows in half‐profile the portraits of Grand Duke Henri and his grandmother, Grand Duchess Charlotte (1896‐1985), looking to the left. On the left, the name of the country "LËTZEBUERG" (Luxembourg) and the year of issue "2009" are written in two vertical lines, the latter flanked at the top by a staff of Hermes the mint mark of the Dutch mint Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt in Utrecht and at the bottom by the sails of the three‐masted clipper Nederland the logo of mint master Maarten Brouwer.

🔎		Germany	08 Feb. 2009	Saarland (Ludwigs‐church in Saarbrücken) 4th coin in the Federal States series	20001 20002 20005	30,940,630	•
	Description : The coin designed by Friedrich Brenner is dedicated to the Saarland and shows the Ludwigskirche in Saarbrücken, built between 1762‐1775. It is the city's landmark and, along with Dresden's Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) and Hamburg's St. Michel's Curch, is considered one of the most important Protestant Baroque church buildings in Germany. It is also one of the most famous transept churches. The name of the federal state "SAARLAND" is underneath the motif, together with the German mint mark (A = Staatliche Münze Berlin in Berlin, D = Bayerisches Hauptmünzamt in Munich, F = Staatliche Münzen Baden‐Württemberg in Stuttgart, G = Staatliche Münzen Baden‐Württemberg in Karlsruhe or J = Landesbetrieb Hamburgische Münze in Hamburg). The designer's initials "FB" are at the top right. "BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND" (Federal States of Germany) is arranged in a semicircle at the bottom of the ring, while at the top the year "2009" is flanked on both sides by six European stars.

🔎		Portugal	09 Jun. 2009	Lusophony Games 2009	20001 20002 20005	1,285,000	•
	Description : The coin, minted on the occasion of the Lusofonia Games held in Lisbon within the framework of the Community of Portuguese‐Speaking Countries, shows a sports gymnast with a ribbon. At the top is the shield of the Portuguese coat of arms, which is surrounded in a semicircle by the country's name "PORTUGAL". At the bottom of the pill the occasion of issue "2os JOGOS DA LUSOFONIA LISBOA" (2nd Lusofonia Games Lisbon) is depicted, flanked on the left by "INCM" the mint mark of the Portuguese mint Imprensa Nacional‐ Casa da Moeda S.A. in Lisbon, on the right by the signet "J. AURÉLIO" of the designer José Aurélio. The year of issue "2009" appears on the left above the head of the sports gymnast. The coin ring is decorated with eight concentric circles, superimposed by the twelve stars of Europe.

🔎		San Marino	05 Sep. 2009	European Year of Creativity and Innovation	20001 20002 20005	130,000	•
	Description : The coin, designed by Annalisa Masini, shows a book with the spiral of the medieval Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci and some utensils typical of science and research: a compass, a test tube and a volumetric flask. On the left side are the three ostrich feathers symbolising San Marino. At the top is the issue occasion "CREATIVITÀ INNOVAZIONE" (creative innovation), on the right the year of issue "2009", below the letter "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome and at the bottom the name of the issuing country "SAN MARINO" is depicted, below it the initials "A.M." of the designer.

🔎		Belgium	25 Sep. 2009	200th birthday of Louis Braille	20001 20002 20005	5,013,500	•
	Description : The coin designed by Luc Luycx is dedicated to Louis Brailles (1809‐1852), a Frenchman who went blind at the age of five after an accident. At the age of eleven, he learned of the "night writing" developed by Charles Barbier (1767‐1841), which was intended to give written orders to soldiers at the front who could read them without lighting a lantern, as they would otherwise have exposed themselves to enemy fire. In 1824, at the age of fifteen, he developed a code for the French alphabet to improve night writing. After a second revision, in 1837 he published the first binary braille developed in modern times. Between the initials "L" and "B", which are written in braille, the coin shows his image after a bust by an unknown artist. Above this is written in the form of an arch "LOUIS BRAILLE". Below are "1809" as Braille's year of birth, the country abbreviation "BE" (Belgium) and the year of issue "2009", flanked on the left by the helmeted head of the Archangel Michael the mint mark of the Royal Belgian mint Monnaie Royale de Belgique / Koninklijke Munt van België / Königliche Belgische Münzprägeanstalt in Brussels and on the right by a feather the logo of the mint master Serge Lesens.

🔎		Italy	15 Oct. 2009	200th birthday of Louis Braille	20001 20002 20005	2,000,000	•
	Description : This coin is dedicated to Louis Braille (1809‐1852), the inventor of the braille named after him. Blind after an accident at the age of five, he learned at the age of eleven about the "night writing" developed by Charles Barbier (1767‐1841), which was intended to give written orders to soldiers at the front who could read them without lighting a lantern, as they would otherwise have exposed themselves to enemy fire. In 1824, at the age of fifteen, he developed a code for the French alphabet to improve night writing. After a second revision, in 1837 he published the first binary braille developed in modern times. A hand is depicted scanning an open book. Above the index finger pointing to the vertical inscription "LOUIS BRAILLE 1809 2009" are two stylised seagulls as a symbol of freedom of knowledge. The name of the county as the ligature "RI" (Repubblica Italiana, Italian Republic) is at the top right, the "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome at the bottom right. Braille's name is shown below the book in the Braille script he invented. At the bottom of the pill are the initials "M.C.C." of the medallist Maria Carmela Colaneri.

🔎		Finland	23 Oct. 2009	200th anniversary of Finnish Autonomy	20001 20002 20005	1,600,000	•
	Description : In 1809, the Grand Duchy of Finland was formed, which was part of the Russian Empire but enjoyed extensive political autonomy. The motif of the coin, designed by Reijo Juhani Paavilainen, is the gable of Porvoo Cathedral, the site of Finland's first Diet, built in the 15th century and partially destroyed by fire in 2006. The date of the first meeting "1809" is shown at the top, the year of issue "2009" on the right, the country abbreviation "FI" (Finland) on the left as well as a horn of plenty with rounds the mint mark of the Finnish mint Suomen Rahapaja OY in Vantaa.

🔎		Slovakia	10 Nov. 2009	20th anniversary of the Start of the Velvet Revolution	20001 20002 20005	1,000,000	•
	Description : Key rings became the symbol of the peaceful resistance in Czechoslovakia in 1989. The demonstators wanted to symbolise the downfall of the communist regime, the "Velvet Revolution" with keys ringing over their heads. So the symbol of a key acting as the clapper in a bell is the motif on the coin. It is surrounded in a circle with the inscriptions "17 NOVEMBER SLOBODA DEMOKRATIA" (17th November Freedom of Democracy), "1989‐2009" and "SLOVENSKO" (Slovakia). The square emblem of the coin designer Pavel Károly, formed of his initials, and the mint mark "MK" between two embossing stamps of the Slovak mint Mincovňa Kremnica š.p. in Kremnica are located to the lower right‐hand side of the bell.

🔎		Vatican City	18 Nov. 2009	International Year of Astronomy	20001 20002 20005	106,084	•
	Description : The coin designed by Orietta Rossi depicts an astrolabe which reproduced the rotating sky so enabled the calculation of the positions of stars. It is divided into four quadrants. The first quadrant (top right) shows Michelangelo (1475‐1564)who painted the creation of the sun, the moon and the plants on the ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel (painted around 1510). In the second quadrant (upper left) the two telescopes (90 and 130 cm long respectively) built by the polymath Galileo Galilei in 1609 and houses in the Museo Galileo in Florence. In the third quadrant (lower left) below the astrolabe indicator can be seen the mint mark "R" of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome, in the fourth quadrant (lower right) a reflecting telescope. Below it a sun with a halo of rays, a crescent moon, planets and stars and the year of issue "2009" are shown. The logos "O.ROSSI" of the designer and "M.C.C. INC." (INC. = Incisore / Engraver) of the engraver Maria Carmela Colaneri appear to the right and left of it respectively. At the bottom there is a semi‐circle with "ANNO INTERNAZIONALE DELL' ASTRONOMIA" (International Year of Astronomy) and at the top right there are the words "CITTÀ DEL VATICANO" (Vatican City).

⇓ 2010 ⇓

References :
20001	Images taken with authorisation by the ECB ‐ Mail dated 20.Feb.2020 © "European Central Bank"	20002	Data mirrored from Wikipedia Page "2_euro_commemorative_coins" with friendly support of the guardians of that page.
20003	Not Applicable	20004	Coloured version of this Commemorative Coin in circulation EU‐legal‐technical specifications do not recongnise colour prints, but the EU is tolerate them, due to the facts that their numbers are very small and that they are sold in special packs and therefor are very unlikely to be used as currency.
20005	enlarged Images taken with authorisation by Gerd Seyffert © "Gerd Seyffert 2021"	20006	Not Applicable