2 Euro commemorative coins

2 Euro

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

⇑ 2022 ⇑
2023
Image	Country		Date	Feature	Ref.	Volume
🔎		France	10 Jan. 2023	The Sower and the fist fighting ‐ Pont Neuf 3rd coin in the series on the Olympic Summer Games Paris 2024	20003 20008 20009	280,000	•
	Description : La Semeuse (The Sower) is a French allegory invented by Oscar Roty around 1887. The young woman in a Phrygian cap sowing seeds at sunrise became over time one of the symbols of the French Republic, depicted in particular on coins. On the third commemorative coin, dedicated to the Summer Olympics to be held in Paris in 2024, the sowing woman is depicted in the pose of a pugilist, wearing modern boxing gloves. Pugilism was first a discipline at the 23rd Ancient Olympics in 688 BC. The logo of the Games, "PARiS 2024" and the five Olmpic rings are depicted on the right, integrated into the running tracks concentrically surrounding the motif in the background of the national stadium Stade de France, which opened in 1998 and seats 75,000 spectators for athletics. The architectural motif of the coin is the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), built under King Henry IV from 1578 to 1607, which crosses the western tip of the Île de la Cité (City Island) lying in the Seine near the Louvre Palace, with the Place Dauphine (Square of the Successor to the Throne), whose peripheral buildings are visible above the bridge on the left. "2023" is shown as the year of issue on the right‐hand arch of the bridge, the country abbreviation "RF" (République française, French Republic) is on the left. A cornucopia is depicted at the bottom left as the mint mark of the French mint Monnaie de Paris in Plessac, and at the bottom right the square mintmaster's mark of the French chief engraver and coin designer Joaquin Jimenez.

🔎		Germany	24 Jan. 2023	Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie) 1st coin in the 2nd Federal States series	20003 20005 20009	30,331,200	•
	Description : The first coin of the Federal States Series II, which focuses in particular on the cultural identity and regional characteristics of the individual states, is dedicated to the federal state of Hamburg in accordance with the order of the alternating presidencies of the Federal Council. Hamburg presents itself with the Elbphilharmonie, the new landmark of the maritime Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg ‐ located in the port of Hamburg, which as part of the Lower Elbe is exposed to the tides. According to the design of the Swiss architects "Herzog & de Meuron", a modern structure with a glass faĉade and an undulating roof was erected using the shell of the former 'Kaispeicher A' as a base. The total height of the concert hall, which was built from 2007 to 2016 and inaugurated in 2017, is 110 metres. A calculated investment volume of €77 million ultimately became €866 million. The coin design by the artist Michael Otto, whose ligatured initials "mo" appear on the right, shows the "Elphi" against the backdrop of the neo‐Gothic brick architecture of Hamburg's Speicherstadt warehouse district and with two of Hamburg's typical launches used as tugboats or for passenger tours on the Norderelbe. On the right are three historic half‐portal loading cranes on the quay ‐ the last of what were once more than 1,000 cranes of this kind in the Hamburg port area ‐ which were used to load coffee and cocoa sacks from the ships into the interior of the Kaispeicher warehouse until the early 1990s. At the bottom it says "HAMBURG", on the left the country abbreviation "D" (for Deutschland, Germany) and below it the year of issue "2023" as well as 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 oder J = Landesbetrieb Hamburgische Münze in Hamburg).

🔎		Slowakia	02 Mar. 2023	100 anniversary of the first blood transfusion in Slovakia	20003 20005 20009	1,000,000	•
	Description : The Viennese doctor Karl Landsteiner defined the AB0 system of blood groups in 1900, which includes the characteristics A and B, which can be combined to form the main groups A, B, AB and 0 (neither A nor B). Worldwide, their frequency is: 0 = 45%, A = 40%, B = 11% and AB = 4%. The researcher, who received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for this in 1930, also discovered the rhesus factor in 1937 during experiments with rhesus monkeys, which causes a possible rhesus incompatibility in pregnancies. 88% of people are rhesus‐positive and 12% rhesus‐negative. The frequency distribution of blood group characteristics according to the AB0 and Rhesus systems varies greatly depending on ethnicity. The most common combination 0+ applies to 48% of the population in several countries, whereas the rarest AB‐ applies to only 0.03% in East Asia. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first blood transfusion in Slovakia, Mária Poldaufová designed a central circle with a Greek cross, symbol of the Red Cross relief organisation, with a (blood) drop in the middle as the coin motif. On the four bars of the cross are the letters "A", "B", the number "0" and "AB" ‐ clockwise ‐ surrounded by 16 drops arranged in a circle, the tips of which point alternately ‐ embossed in relief ‐ towards the centre or ‐ deeply embossed ‐ away from the centre. The circular inscription "• SLOVENSKO •" (Slovakia) is at the bottom of the pill and above it the occasion of issue "PRVÁ TRANSFÚZIA KRVI 1923‐2023" (first blood transfusion 1923‐2023, the second number also representing the year of issue). The mint mark of the Slovak mint Mincovňa Kremnica š.p. in Kremnica, an "MK" between two embossing stamps and the ligature "MP" of the designer's initials flank the lowest drop on the left and right respectively.

🔎		Lithuania	16 Mar. 2023	Together with Ukraine	20003 20005 20009	500,000	•
	Description : Lithuania dedicates this commemorative coin to the people of Ukraine who have been suffering and dying since Russia occupied and annexed Crimea in 2014 and launched its invasion on the 24 February 2022. Coin designer Eglė Žemaitė depicts a stylised sunflower, Ukraine's national plant, which is grown extensively in the country. Around the flower basket with its numerous small tubular flowers is written in a semicircle the issue occasion "KARTU SU UKRAINA" (together with Ukraine, in Lithuanian), surrounded by reed blossoms in the form of stylised people holding hands, embracing and protecting each other, thus embodying unity, support and the power of togetherness. The shapes of the child and adult figures look like tongues of flame around a rising sun, a sign of hope. Above them hover birds alluding to those who lost their lives in this war or sacrificed as national defenders, and their departing souls. At the top left is written "LIETUVA" (Lithuania), below it the year of issue with "2023" and on the right the circular mint mark "LMK" of the Lithuanian mint Lietuvos monetų kalykla in Vilnius.

🔎		Finland	21 Mar. 2023	First Finnish Nature Conservation Act (1932)	20003 20005 20009	405,000	•

	Description : 100 years ago, in 1923, the Finnish Imperial Nature Conservation Act was passed, which is still in force and allows the protection of individual plant and animal species and other natural objects, as well as the establishment of reserves on state or private land. Since 1983, the country has had its own Ministry of the Environment and is working on a first social contract for sustainability: government programmes and initiatives from business, civil society and authorities are to converge under one roof. Forests, lakes and bogs are the main element of the Finnish landscape. Completely untouched forest nature can only be found in parts of Lapland, where the number of Finland's larger predators such as bear, lynx, wolf and wolverine has increased in recent years. However, large areas of northern Finnish moorland have been preserved in an undisturbed natural state; they have not yet begun to be drained. But the first peatlands have already been turned into huge reservoirs in the service of the electricity industry. The energy‐intensive production of pulp, paper and metal are central Finnish industries that have been modernised considerably, but per capita energy consumption in Finland is still twice as high as the EU average. Nature conservation is no longer just a scientific and idealistic task in Finland either, but a cultural and social necessity. Coin designer Sandra Prami has chosen a longhorn beetle, a pre‐Arctic common beetle, as the motif. The occasion of issue, nature conservation, is indicated at the top with "LUONNONSUOJELU" in Finnish and at the bottom with "NATURSKYDD" in Swedish, followed by "2023", the year of issue. On the right is the country abbreviation "FI" (Finland) and a lion (the heraldic animal of Finland) on the left as the mint mark of the Finnish mint Suomen Rahapaja OY in Vantaa.

🔎		Italy	21 Mar. 2023	100th anniversary of the Italian Air Force	20003 20005 20009	3,032,000	•
	Description : In 1910, the first aircraft were put into service and combined into an independent engineer battalion. In 1915, the Corpo Aeronautico Militare (Military Aviation Corps) was founded. Together with the naval air corps established in 1913, it took part in the First World War, also in France, the Balkans and North Africa. The air forces of the Army and Navy gave rise to the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Air Force) of Italy in 1923. The wear and tear of the colonial wars fought in North and East Africa since 1922 and the participation in the Spanish Civil War led to the air force losing touch with the technical and operational development of the air forces of other great powers at the end of the 1930s. Italy's entry into the Second World War in 1940 forced the Regia Aeronautica into a technically often unequal struggle. With the formal end of the monarchy in 1946, it changed its name to Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force) and incorporated itself as a partner in NATO, which was founded in 1949. The coin motif is the logo of the centenary of the Air Force. The two zeros of the number "100" are crossed by an ascending line, at the beginning of which a single‐engine historical propeller aircraft can be seen at the bottom left and at the end of which a modern fighter jet can be seen at the top right. A semi‐circular line connects the wings of both aircraft on the right with the dates "2023" and "1923" below each other. The issue occasion "AERONAUTICA MILITARE" (Italian Air Force) is at the bottom, the ligature "RI" (Repubblica Italiana, Italian Republic) is shown at the top as the country abbreviation. On the left is the "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome and on the right the initials "VdS" of the mint designer Valerio de Seta.

🔎		Spain	28 Mar. 2023	Old Town of Cáceres 14th coin in the UNESCO Wourld Heritage Sites series	20003 20005 20009	1,500,000	•
	Description : Cáceres is a provincial capital in the Autonomous Region of Extremadura, known for its extensive grazed cork and holm oak groves called 'dehesas', where pigs have been kept for centuries and whose 'Iberian' ham (Jamón Ibérico) is one of the most important products of Spanish agriculture. A historic military and trade road, the 'Vía de la Plata' (Silver Road), connected Seville with Astorga via Cáceres and was already completely paved in the 1st century AD. Since the Middle Ages, La Plata has also been used as a pilgrimage route; it is part of the network of the Camino de Santiago, whose common destination is the city of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. Cáceres dates back to the Roman fortress of Castra Caecilia, founded in 79 BC. In the 6th century, large parts of the city were destroyed by the invading Visigoths and only later rebuilt by the Moors. In 1139, the city was temporarily conquered in the course of the Reconquista (reconquest [from Arab rule]), but it was not until 1229 that it was finally captured for the Kingdom of León. In the 15th century, Isabella I of Castile ordered the demolition of all the towers of the houses whose owners had not supported her in the succession dispute with Joan of Castile. As a result, Cáceres was badly affected; only two palaces remained unscathed. This is why Cáceres is still called the "decapitated capital". The old town of Cáceres has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986. The coin shows part of the south‐eastern perimeter of the Plaza Mayor (main square), the traditional meeting place of the cacereños, with the stairway leading up to the star‐arched gate Arco de la Estrella, built by the Baroque architect Manuel de Lara y Churriguera (∼1690‐1755). At the top left, you can see the top of the Bujaco Tower, bastion of the Knights of the Order of Santiago, the Order of Saint James of the Sword. At the bottom it says "CÁCERES", at the top it says "ESPAÑA" (Spain) and below it the year of issue "2023" and on the right there is the letter "M" adorned with a crown, the mint mark of the Spanish mint Real Casa de la Moneda in Madrid.

🔎		Germany	30 Mar. 2023	1275th Birthday of Charlemagne	20003 20005 20009	20,275,000	•
	Description : Charlemagne (748-814) was the eldest son of Pippin the Younger. He was king of the Frankish Empire from 768, together with his brother Carloman I until 771. He was the first Western European ruler since antiquity to attain the imperial dignity ‐ the imperial coronation by Pope Leo III took place on the 25th of December 800 in St Peter's Basilica (Old St Peter's) in Rome. Charlemagne was the most important ruler from the Carolingian dynasty; the Frankish Empire reached its greatest expansion and development of power under him. As the most important state in the West since the fall of Western Rome, it rose to become the new great power alongside Byzantium and the Abbasid Caliphate and encompassed the core of early medieval Latin Christendom. Aachen, Charlemagne's main residence, remained the coronation site of the Roman German kings until the 16th century. The coin designer Tobias Winnen shows Charlemagne's signum, according to a document issued in 790 (with his own execution line at the top within the rhombus of the monogram), in front of the stylised ground plan of Aachen Cathedral, built from 795 to 803 according to Byzantine models as the chapel of the Aachen Imperial Palace. Around the rhombus, the eight supporting pillars of the cloister vault of the dome are visible, which for centuries remained the widest and highest woodless room covering north of the Alps. The gallery surrounding the interior of the Palatine Chapel connects the octagon with the hexagon of the outer contour by means of eight triangular and eight quadrangular compartments. Charlemagne's bones were transferred from the tomb in the Palatine Chapel to Charlemagne's shrine inside the Gothic choir hall in 1215. The issue occasion "KARL DER GROßE" (KARL THE GREAT) can be seen at the top, with the dates of his life "748‐814" at the bottom. The year of issue "2023" is shown at the bottom left, the country abbreviation "D" (for Deutschland /Germany) and 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) are shown at the bottom right. The initials "TW" of the designer can be found on the right side of the rhombus.

🔎 🔎		Luxembourg	24 Apr. 2023	175th anniversary of the Chamber of Deputies and of the First Constitution 29th coin in the Grand‐Ducal Dynasty series	20003 20005 20009	133,500	•
	Description : The German Revolution of 1848/1849, known as the 'March Revolution', also led to democratic reforms in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. In 1848, the Grand Duke approved a constitutional amendment that replaced the Estates Assembly with a freely elected Chamber of Deputies (Chambre des Députés) with massively expanded parliamentary powers. Although some of the reforms were reversed in the subsequent era of reaction, the election of the Chambre des Députés from 1919 onwards corresponded to modern democratic ideas: In addition to universal, free and equal suffrage, women's suffrage was introduced. The building designed by Antoine Hartmann as the Chamber of Deputies next to the Grand Ducal Palace in Luxembourg was inaugurated in 1860. The coin design, based on a design concept of the Luxembourg Central Bank (Banque Centrale du Luxembourg ‐ BCL), shows it next to the frontal portrait of Grand Duke Henri. Above and ‐ in vertically running script ‐ to the right is "1848 Chambre des Députés" (Chamber of Deputies). At the bottom "LUXEMBOURG" indicates the issuing country and below it the year of issue "2023". The mintmark next to the 4 o'clock star on the pill indicates the involed mint: For circulation coins, a cornucopia indicates the mint mark of the French mint Monnaie de Paris in Plessac and the square logo indicates the French chief engraver Joaquin Jimenez; for coins in Coincards, which ‐ minted in normal relief ‐ show the minting grade mint gloss, the staff of Hermes the mint mark of the Royal Dutch mint Koninklijke Nederlandske Munt in Houten and a raven as the logo of the Dutch mintmaster Bert van Ravenswaaij. Coins offered in coin sets also bear the Dutch mint marks, but they were produced using the MPI (Minted Photo Image) minting technique. Coins produced in the proof production process show the "MK" between two embossing stamps, the mint mark of the Slovak mint Mincovňa Kremnica š.p. in Kremnica.

🔎 🔎		Luxembourg	24 Apr. 2023	25th anniversary of the admission of Grand Duke Henri as a member of the International Olympic Committee 30th coin in the Grand‐Ducal Dynasty series	20003 20005 20009	133,500	•
	Description : The purpose of the International Olympic Committee, with its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, is to organise and supervise the Summer and Winter Games. It holds the patronage of the Olympic Movement and claims all rights to the Olympic symbols and the Games themselves. Currently, the IOC has 99 voting regular members. Grand Duke Henri was appointed to the body in 1998. The coin, designed by Italian medallist Chiara Principe, is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Grand Duke Henri's admission as a member of the IOC. To the right of and above his portrait in three‐quarter profile, she has draped pictograms of four athletes from various Olympic disciplines and a stylised figure bearing the Olympic flame as part of the anniversary number "25". Above it is the year "1998" and below it the year of issue "2023". On the left, in vertical lines, the words "LËTZEBUERG" (Luxembourg) and "GROUSSHERZOG HENRI" (Grand Duke Henri) are written in two lines in Luxembourgish, and on the lower right, in three lines, "MEMBER VUM INTERNATIONALEN OLYMPESCHE KOMMITEE" (Member of the International Olympic Committee). Three overlapping circle segments suggesting the Olympic rings are visible below, with the ligature "CP" of the designer's initials in the middle segment. The mint mark visible in the right segment indicates involed mint: For circulation coins, a cornucopia indicates the mint mark of the French mint Monnaie de Paris in Plessac and the square logo indicates the French chief engraver Joaquin Jimenez; for coins in Coincards, which ‐ minted in normal relief ‐ show the minting grade mint gloss, the staff of Hermes the mint mark of the Royal Dutch mint Koninklijke Nederlandske Munt in Houten and a raven as the logo of the Dutch mintmaster Bert van Ravenswaaij. Coins offered in coin sets also bear the Dutch mint marks, but they were produced using the MPI (Minted Photo Image) minting technique. Coins produced in the proof production process show the "MK" between two embossing stamps, the mint mark of the Slovak mint Mincovňa Kremnica š.p. in Kremnica.

🔎		San Marino	27 Apr. 2023	500th anniversary of the death of Pietro Perugino	20003 20005 20009	56,000	•
	Description : Pietro Vannucci (∼1448‐1523), called 'Perugino' (from Perugia), was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He was considered the most important master of the Umbrian School and was Raphael's teacher. His own teachers were probably Piero della Francesca and Andrea del Verrocchio, in whose workshop Leonardo da Vinci, among others, was trained. In 1481, he painted his most famous painting, "Christ Handing the Keys to St. Peter", one of the works from the wall fresco cycle in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, in which Italy's most celebrated painters of the time collaborated. The perspective depth stretching particularly impressed the people of the time. The "Madonna and Child, St Sebastian and St John the Baptist" from 1493 is an oil painting on panel ‐ commissioned for the chapel of the church of the monastery of San Domenico in Fiesole ‐ now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The coin, designed by Maria Angela Cassol, shows the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus as a detail of this painting. On the top left the occasion of issue "PERUGINO" is indicated in the form of an arc, to the right of it ‐ in two lines ‐ the year of the painter's death is shown as "1523" and the year of issue as "2023". On the right, "SAN MARINO" is written in the shape of an arc, on the left the "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome. The initials "MAC" of the designer appear at the bottom right.

🔎		Estonia	12 May 2023	The Barn Swallow, Estonia's National Bird 2nd coin of the national symbols of Estonia series	20003 20005 20009	1,000,000	•
	Description : The barn swallow, Estonia's national bird, has become rarer in Estonia in recent decades and the commemorative coin is intended to recall its symbolic importance for Estonia's traditional culture and nature. As a classic cultural follower, it lives in rural habitats close to humans. Living in permanent pair bonds, barn swallows build open, shell‐shaped nests of mud clods and straw on a masonry ledge or beams on the wall in barns, stables or other open indoor spaces to raise their young. In earlier centuries, they often flew in and out through the openings in the gable, through which the smoke from the hearth fire also escaped ‐ this is how they got the name barn swallows. As they are excellent flyers, a window in the tilted position is sufficient for them to leave the building. The nests are used again and again. There, the female lays four to five eggs two to three times a year, which she incubates for 14 to 17 days. Both parents feed the young birds for three weeks after hatching. Barn swallows hunt all kinds of flying insects. Between mid‐September and mid‐October, European barn swallows begin their migration to their wintering grounds in Central and South Africa, from where they return to their Central European breeding grounds between the end of March and mid‐May. The coin designer Kaupo Kangro has depicted a barn swallow in flight in front of a pair of swallows perched on a wire. Above and to the right is the Latin name of the species "HIRUNDO RUSTICA" in the form of an arc. Below, the state of issue "EESTI" (Estonia) and the year of issue "2023" are mentioned in two lines. The coin was produced at the Finnish mint Suomen Rahapaja OY in Vantaa.

🔎		Italy	15 May 2023	150th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni	20003 20005 20009	3,027,000	•
	Description : Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) was an Italian poet and writer who contributed significantly to the development of the modern, unified Italian language. Both Italy and the Vatican City are dedicating a €2 commemorative coin to the 150th anniversary of his death. After his education in church boarding schools, Manzoni moved to Paris in 1805 and found many friends there, especially among the Voltaire followers, including the philologist Claude Fauriel, who introduced him to the works of William Shakespeare and German Romanticism. In 1819 Manzoni published his first tragedy Il Conte di Carmagnola (The Count of Carmagnola), which broke all classical conventions on the unity of place and time and was sharply criticised by representatives of linguistic purism, whereupon Goethe defended it. The death of Napoleon Bonaparte on the 5th of May 1821 inspired Manzoni to write his ode Il cinque Maggio (The Fifth of May), which is one of the best‐known poems in Italian and was first translated into German by Goethe. His main work, the historical novel I Promessi Sposi (The Bride and Groom), is set in the years 1628‐1630 in the Duchy of Milan, which was then ruled by Spain, and in neighbouring Bergamo, which belonged to the Republic of Venice. With its patriotic message, the work is also a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento (Resurgence), the striving for a nation‐state of Italy. First published in 1827, Manzoni revised the novel in the 1830s to purge it of remnants of Lombard dialect and present it in Tuscan script so that it could be read by all Italians throughout the country. It is one of the few works of Italian Romanticism. The coin designer Antonio Vecchio took the image of Manzoni on the Italian 100,000 lira banknote issued between 1967 and 1979 as a model and to the left of it, under the country abbreviation, the ligature "RI" (Repubblica Italiana, Italian Republic), he depicted the year of Manzoni's death and the year of issue with "1873 ‐ 2023" and in the shape of a circle the occasion of issue "ALESSANDRO MANZONI". On the right is the "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome and the designer's signet "AV".

🔎		Latvia	30 May 2023	The Sunflower of Ukraine	20003 20005 20009	410,000	•
	Description : Ukraine is home to the world's largest areas of sunflower cultivation and is a leader in the production and export of sunflower oil. The coin is dedicated to the sunflower, the national symbol of Ukraine, and to the struggle of the Ukrainian people for their continued existence in peace and freedom. The Ukrainian resistance since the occupation and annexation of Crimea by Russia as well as the secession of parts of the Donbas in 2014 and intensified since the invasion of Russian troops that began on the 24th of February 2022 is also actively supported by Latvia. The proceeds of the commemorative coins issued as Coincards will be donated to Ukraine. Coin designer Krišs Salmanis chose the flower, which has become a worldwide symbol of peace, as the motif. In the flower basket surrounded by ray florets, the many fruits formed from tubular flowers close together stand out, forming numerous spirals (running clockwise or anti‐clockwise). These are called 'Fibonacci spirals' after the Italian arithmetician Leonardo Fibonacci (1170‐1242) and are associated with the golden section. "SLAVA UKRAINAI!" (Glory to Ukraine!) is written at the top as the occasion of issue, below are the issuing country "LATVIJA" (Latvia) and "2023" as the year of issue. The coin was minted without mint mark by the Lithuanian mint Lietuvos monetų kalykla in Vilnius.

🔎		Monaco	31 May 2023	The centenary of the birth of Prince Rainier III	20003 20005 20009	25,000	•
	Description : Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Rainier Grimaldi (1923‐2005) succeeded his grandfather Louis II as Rainier III in the reign of the principality after his mother Charlotte abdicated the throne in 1949. His full title was: Prince de Monaco, Duc de Valentinois, Marquis des Baux, Comte de Carladès, Baron du Buis, Seigneur de Saint‐Remy, Sire de Matignon, Comte de Torigni, Baron de Saint‐Lô, de la Luthumière et de Hambye, Duc d'Estouteville, de Mazarin et de Mayenne, Prince de Château‐Porcien, Comte de Ferrette, de Belfort, de Thann et de Rosemont, Baron d'Altkirch et Seigneur d'Issenheim, Marquis de Chilly, Comte de Longjumeau, Baron de Massy, Marquis de Guiscard. Educated in English and Swiss boarding schools, he had studied at the École libre des sciences politiques (Free School of Political Sciences) in Paris, called 'Sciences Po'. In 1956, he married the US film actress and Oscar winner Grace Kelly, who thus became Princess Grace of Monaco. The marriage produced three children: Caroline, Albert and Stéphanie of Monaco. In 1982, the Princess, also known as 'Gracia Patricia', died in a car accident. Under the reign of Rainier III, the Principality developed into the centre of international high society; tourism, congresses and industrialisation boomed and new land was gained on the coast. Below the portrait of the Prince, his name and date of birth are inscribed in a circular arc with "♦ RAINIER III • 31 MAI 1923 ♦" (23rd of May 1923). At the top, the country of issue and the year of issue are shown in a circular arc with "MONACO 2023", flanked on the left by a cornucopia as the mint mark of the French mint Monnaie de Paris in Pessac and on the right by the square mintmaster's mark of the French chief engraver Joaquin Jimenez.

🔎		Belgium	20 Jun. 2023	Year of Art Nouveau	20003 20008 20009	155,000	•
	Description : At the end of the 19th century, the Belgian architect Victor Horta (1861‐1947) was one of the early pioneers of the stylistic revolution of Art Nouveau, characterised by open floor plans, the guidance of light through the building structure and the brilliant combination of curved decorative lines with the load‐bearing structures of the buildings. Steel and glass were used as new building materials. Through the rational use of metal structures, sometimes openly visible, sometimes cleverly concealed, Horta created living areas flooded with light and air, directly adapted to the personality and needs of their inhabitants. The imaginative interiors are characterised by decorative motifs that flow seamlessly from the mosaic floors to the wall paintings, and also by decorative elements made of wrought iron and custom‐made pieces of furniture. Four of the Brussels townhouses designed by Victor Horta were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2000. They take up the traditions of upper middle‐class townhouses and stately private villas and combine residential and representational functions, which require a skilful organisation of the various areas of use and their access. For this purpose, Horta used the two‐part building type, whose two parts are connected by a glass‐roofed circulation area that can be used as a winter garden. Above all, nature was an important source of inspiration for Art Nouveau, as the generous use of plant and flower motifs and the many depictions of birds show. In 1893, Victor Horta completed the 'Tassel House' designed for Émile Tassel. 130 years later, Brussels calls itself the 'Capital of Art Nouveau' and dedicates a varied cultural programme to this anniversary. The coin, designed by Iris Bruijns, shows a detail of the façade of the house built in 1895 for Baron Edmond van Eetvelde, an asymmetrical wall decoration above the Beletage designed by Victor Horta. At the top, the issue occasion "ART NOUVEAU", in the middle the country abbreviation "BE" (Belgium) and below it the year of issue "2023". On the left, an aster blossom in front of an alder meyer flask represents the Belgian mintmaster's mark of Giovanni Van de Velde, and below it and an Hermes staff the mint mark of the Dutch mint Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt in Houten. On the right are the designer's initials "IB".

🔎		Vatican City	20 Jun. 2023	150th anniversary of the death of Pietro Perugino	20003 20005 20009	78,500	•
	Description : Pietro Vannucci (∼1448‐1523), called 'Perugino' (from Perugia), was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He was considered the most important master of the Umbrian School and was Raphael's teacher. His own teachers were probably Piero della Francesca and Andrea del Verrocchio, in whose workshop Leonardo da Vinci, among others, was trained. In 1481, he painted his most famous painting, "Christ hands the keys to Peter", one of the works from the wall fresco cycle in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, in which the most celebrated painters in Italy at the time collaborated. The perspective depth stretching particularly impressed the people of the time. A detail of another of Perugino's frescoes to the right of the altar in the Sistine Chapel, the "Baptism of Christ" painted in 1482, is depicted on the left of the commemorative coin: John the Baptist baptising Christ in and with the waters of the Jordan, under the hovering dove of the Holy Spirit. On the right foreground, the coin designer Daniela Fusco has placed a self‐portrait of Perugino, which he painted between 1497 and 1500 as a fresco in the 'Collegio del Cambio' of the Palazzo dei Priori (Prior's Palace) in Perugia. Below is written in two lines "PERUGINO" and with "1523 ‐ 2023" his year of death and the year of issue. In the upper right corner, in the shape of an arc, the issuing state "CITTÁ DEL VATICANO" (Vatican City); on the left the initial "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome is depicted, on the left next to the portrait with "FUSCO" the name of the designer and on the right with "A.M.INC." (INC. = Incisore / Engraver) the logo of the medallist Annalisa Masini.

🔎		Ireland	22 Jun. 2023	50th anniversary of accession to the EU	20003 20008 20009	501,000	•
	Description : Ireland left the Commonwealth of Nations in 1949 after more than three centuries of British rule, but the six counties of Northern Ireland remained in the United Kingdom. In 1973, Ireland joined the European Community (EC) as part of the 'Northern Enlargement', together with Great Britain and Denmark. In 1998, the 'Good Friday Agreement' succeeded in ending armed conflict in Northern Ireland. With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on the 1st of December 2009, the European Community was dissolved and the European Union (EU) became its legal successor. After difficult years, there was a strong economic recovery from 1995 to 2007, supported by EU structural funds, which earned Ireland the nickname Celtic Tiger. In 2002, Ireland (along with 11 other eurozone countries) adopted the euro as its currency. The world financial crisis of 2007/2008 hit Ireland particularly hard, especially as speculative bubbles such as that in the real estate sector burst. The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU, known as 'Brexit', which took place on the 31st of January 2020 following a referendum held in 2016, moved the EU's external border into the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Northern Ireland in order to maintain a land border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland free of controls. Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, thus remained legally in the EU. The coin shows the logo for the 50th anniversary of EU accession, consisting of two lines of the word "ÉIRE" (Ireland) and "eu50", with the zero of the ligatured number completed by five euro stars. At the top is the year of accession, "1973", at the bottom the year of issue, "2023". The coin was produced without mint mark by the Irish mint Lárionad Airgeadra an Bhainc Ceannais / Central Bank Currency Centre in Áth an Ghainimh / Sandyford.

🔎		Greece	27 Jun. 2023	100th birthday of Maria Callas	20003 20005 20009	750,000	•
	Description : Maria Callas, daughter of Greek immigrants, was registered with the surname Kalos at birth in New York on the 2nd of December 1923. Her father changed the original surname Kalogeropoulos to Callas in 1929. After her parents separated, Maria Callas followed her mother to Athens in 1937, where she studied singing at the local conservatory. One of the most important sopranos of the 20th century, she mastered a repertoire of 43 complete roles as well as arias from a further 34 operas. Her vocal range was almost three octaves and she mastered all the vocal tonal techniques of bel canto singing (as in operas by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini). Her most famous interpretations include Luigi Cherubini's Medea, Violetta in Verdi's 'La traviata' and Bellini's Norma. Maria Callas was often called 'La Divina' (the Divine). In 1949 she married the Italian entrepreneur Giovanni Battista Meneghini and took Italian citizenship. However, her love affair with the Greek‐Argentine shipowner and billionaire Aristotle Onassis led to the breakdown of their marriage in 1959. Maria Callas died in Paris in 1977 at the age of 53. Her ashes were scattered in the Ionian Sea off the Greek island of Skorpios, a private island owned by the Onassis family. The coin shows a portrait of the singer in side view, framed on the left and above in a circular arc by the occasion of issue "100 ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΗ ΓΕΝΝΗΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΙΑΣ ΚΑΛΛΑΣ" (100th years since the birth of Maria Callas) and at the bottom of "ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΔΗΜΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ" (Hellenic Republic). On the right is a palmette as the mint mark of the Greek mint Νομισματοκοπειο / Nomismatokopeio (Bank of Greece ‐ Mint) in Halandri and below it the year of issue "2023". The signet "ΣΤΑΜ" of the mint designer Georgios Stamatopoulos is at the bottom left.

🔎		Spain	03 Jul. 2023	EU Presidency 2023	20003 20008 20009	1,500,000	•
	Description : On the 1st of July, Spain will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months. During this time, further rounds of sanctions against Russia are on the agenda, as well as important environmental and climate legislation and, above all, new rules for dealing with refugees. There is little room for manoeuvre, because when Belgium takes over the Council Presidency in January, the countdown to the European elections in June 2024 has already begun. Spain, however, could now be temporarily unable to act, because Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, after the disastrous election results of his socialist party PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español / Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) in the local and regional elections, surprisingly announced on the 29th of May the dissolution of parliament and new elections, which will now take place on the 23rd of July. The coin shows the two‐line logo of the Spanish Presidency, "UE 23" with the acronym for Unión Europea (European Union), framed in a circle by the inscription: "ESPAÑA 2023‐PRESIDENCIA ESPAÑOLA" (Spain 2023‐Spanish Presidency) and "CONSEJO DE LA UNIÓN EUROPEA" (Council of the European Union). Below is a crowned "M" as the mintmark of the Spanish mint Real Casa de la Moneda in Madrid.

🔎		France	04 Jul. 2023	Rugby Union World Cup ‐ France 2023	20003 20005 20009	15,120,000	•
	Description : Rugby, a team sport that originated in England together with football and is played with a ball in the shape of an elongated ellipsoid of revolution, was, according to legend, first practised in 1823 at the private boarding school 'Rugby School' in the town of Rugby (Warwickshire). In 1845, the first sporting rules were written down by students there. From Rugby, the sport spread not only to public schools in England, but further afield in the British Empire. In 1895, clubs from working‐class areas in the north of England left the Rugby Football Union and founded an association that has been called the Rugby Football League since 1922 and plays according to different rules with 13 players each (also widespread in Australia, apart from the area of origin in the north of England). 15‐a‐side rugby was an Olympic discipline in 1900, 1908, 1920 and 1924; since 2016, 7‐a‐side rugby, played according to the classic Rugby Union rules, has been part of the Olympic programme. World 15s Rugby Championships have been held every four years since 1987 ‐ this year from the 8th of September to the 28th of October. After 2007, France will host for the second time in 2023. Coin designer Joaquin Jimenez has depicted a stylised rugby player in full run, with a ball in his hands. The field of play appears like the cap of a globe represented by circles of longitude and latitude, delimited by the two goals formed by two tall vertical poles and a cross pole each. The background is a firmament of radiating dots and two rugby‐shaped planets, one of them surrounded by rings like Saturn. At the top, the occasion of issue is written in a semicircle ‐ as well as in three lines at the bottom left (below the logo of the event) ‐ "COUPE DU MONDE RUGBY FRANCE 2023" (Rugby World Cup France 2023). On the bottom right is the country abbreviation "RF" (République française, French Republic), flanked on the left by a cornucopia the mint mark of the French mint Monnaie de Paris in Plessac and on the right by the logo of the designer.

🔎		Portugal	19 Jul. 2023	World Youth Day Lisbon 2023	20003 20005 20009	1,015,000	•
	Description : World Youth Days are events of the Roman Catholic Church. The worldwide gathering for all adolescents and young adults between the ages of 14 and 30 is organised by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, part of the Curia, and the host country. The meetings have their origin in an initiative of Pope John Paul II, who invited people to Rome in 1984 for the 'International Youth Jubilee'. Commemorative 2‐euro coins were issued by the Vatican City for the World Youth Days in Cologne in 2005, in Madrid in 2011 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. This year's World Youth Day will take place in Lisbon from the 1st to the 6th of August. Its motto is the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth with the quotation from Luke 1:39: "Mary arose and departed in haste". The motif of the Portuguese commemorative coin designed by João Duarte shows a cross and 23 stylised human figures surrounding it ‐ depicted in different textures and sizes ‐ as well as two hands embracing the globe‐like whole in an embracing gesture. This expresses the community of values of the WYD participants, who share the same universal principles of peace, unity and brotherhood all over the world. Above, in a semi‐circle, it reads "JORNADA MUNDIAL DA JUVENTUDE" (World Youth Day) and "LISBOA 2023" (Lisbon 2023), below "PORTUGAL". The shield from the coat of arms of Portugal is depicted at the bottom left, with "CASA DA MOEDA ‐ JOÃO DUARTE" at the bottom right, the mint mark of the Portuguese mint Imprensa Nacional‐ Casa da Moeda S.A. in Lisbon, and the name of the designer.

🔎		Finland	07 Aug. 2023	Social and health services as safeguards for citizens' well‐being	20003 20005 20009	400,000	•
	Description : Finland was predominantly rural until the end of the 1960s. Finland's late industrialisation and rather weak social democracy explains the relatively late development of a Finnish welfare state ‐ compared to Sweden and the other Nordic countries ‐ which only took place in the 1970s and 80s. The aim of social security in the Nordic welfare model is to ensure a minimum income and adequate consumption for all residents, including in the event of illness, unemployment, incapacity for work or old age. Some of the social security benefits (e.g. the pension system) are based on gainful employment, while others are mainly based on residence in Finland. Examples of residence‐based benefits are child benefits and day care. In Finland, healthcare spending accounted for just under 10% of GDP in 2020 and social spending for 29% in 2022. In the 'World Happiness Report' published by Columbia University, New York, since 2012, Finland ranked first among the happiest countries in the world in 2023 for the sixth year in a row ‐ not least thanks to its strong social safety net, excellent education system and work‐life balance. The coin designer Dario Vidal has filled the outline of Finland with a meandering line structure as a motif, which resembles the laying technique of the water pipes of an underfloor heating system. The Åland archipelago is depicted in the form of a dot. "HYVINVOINTI VÄLFÄRD" (well‐being, in Finnish and Swedish) is the text shown in a semicircle on the left. In the centre is the year of issue "2023", below the country abbreviation "FI" (Finland) and on the right a lion (the heraldic animal of Finland) as the mint mark of the Finnish mint Suomen Rahapaja OY in Vantaa.

🔎		San Marino	05 Sep. 2023	500th anniversary of the death of Luca Signorelli	20003 20005 20009	56,000	•
	Description : Luca Signorelli (∼1450‐1523), also called Luca da Cortona after his birthplace, was an Italian Renaissance painter and principal master of the Florentine School. As a pupil of Piero della Francesca in Arezzo, he learned especially perspective and nude painting, in which his detailed anatomical knowledge is visible. From 1482 to 1484 he executed a fresco on the story of the biblical Moses in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Between 1499 and 1502 he painted, among others, the fresco cycles 'Apocalypse' and 'Last Judgement' in the Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio in Orvieto Cathedral. The latter depicts the elect being called to heaven and the damned being led to hell. This work influenced Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel. The coin motif, designed by Marta Bonifacio, shows an angel from the fresco "The Chosen in Paradise". At the bottom left is an arched "SIGNORELLI" as the occasion of issue and at the top "1523‐2023" as the year of the painter's death and the year of issue. On the left is the country of issue "SAN MARINO" and on the left the "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome. The designer's initials "MB" are visible at the bottom.

🔎		Greece	14 Sep. 2023	150th birthday of Constantin Carathéodory	20003 20005	750,000	•
	Description :

🔎		Malta	14 Sep. 2023	550th anniversary of the birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus	20003 20005 20009	90,500	•
	Description : Nicolaus Copernicus (1473‐1543), born Niklas Koppernigk in the Hanseatic city of Thorn, spoke German and Polish and learned Greek, Latin and Italian. He was a canon of the Prussian prince‐bishopric of Ermland (Polish: Warmia), which was under Polish protection, as well as a doctor and astronomer. After his father's death in 1483, his mother's brother, Lucas Watzenrode, Prince‐Bishop of Warmia, secured his maintenance and education. From 1491 to 1494 Copernicus studied the seven liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) at the University of Cracow; in 1496 he began studies of both laws at the University of Bologna. In 1501 he transferred to the University of Padua to study medicine, obtained a doctorate in canon law in 1503 and became secretary and personal physician to his uncle at the bishop's residence, Heilsberg Castle. He got a job in the cathedral chapter of Frauenburg (Frombork), of which he was chancellor from 1510. There he set up an observatory in a tower of the cathedral fortress in 1514. As administrator he regulated the affairs of government from 1516 to 1519 and worked out a pioneering monetary theory in the negotiations on the reform of Prussian coinage. Copernicus lived in Olsztyn Castle during this time. An astronomical panel for calculating the equinox painted on the plaster of the castle's cloister has been preserved to this day. After the destruction of Frauenburg in the so‐called Horsemen's War, Copernicus moved his residence to Allenstein in 1520 and organised the defence of the city against the Knights of the Order. For his astronomical observations he used the quadrant, triple rod and armillary sphere. In 1542, ten years after completing his Latin manuscript, Copernicus gave his consent to the printing of his findings "On the Orbits of the Celestial Spheres" and, according to legend, it was not until the day of his death in 1543 that the last pages of his printed life's work could be presented to him. Today also called the Copernican world view, it describes the sun as the resting centre of the universe around which the planets, including the earth, move. The coin designed by Daniela Fusco shows on the right the face part of the bronze seated image of Copernicus created for Olsztyn in 2003. The centre of the motif is the sun, whose halo of rays overlaps the circular orbits of the inner three planets surrounding it. Venus is shown on its orbit on the left and the Earth on top. On the upper left is the arched inscription "NICOLAUS KOPERNICUS 1473‐1543", on the lower left "• MALTA 2023" the issuing country and the year of issue. The designer's signet "FUSCO" appears at the bottom. The coin was produced without mint mark by the Royal Dutch mint Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt in Houten.

🔎		Malta	14 Sep. 2023	225th anniversary of the arrival of the French in Malta	20003 20005	80,500	•
	Description :

🔎		Croatia	15 Sep. 2023	The introduction of the Euro as currency of Croatia on 01.01.2023	20003 20005 20009	255,000	•
	Description : The Croatian population voted by a two‐thirds majority in favour of EU accession in a referendum on the 22nd of January 2012. The Accession Treaty adopted by the European Parliament on the 1st of December 2011 was formally approved unanimously by the Croatian Parliament, the Sabor, on the 9th of March 2012. With the deposit of Germany's instrument of ratification on the 21st of June 2013, the ratification process was completed in all EU Member States. On the 1st of July 2013, Croatia became the 28th Member State of the European Union. After fulfilling the EU convergence criteria, which are intended to harmonise the Eurozone in terms of economic policy, Croatia became part of the Eurozone on the 1st of January 2023. The previous currency, the kuna, was replaced by the euro, and euro coins and banknotes were introduced. The first Croatian €2 commemorative coin designed by Nikola Vudrag is dedicated to this event. It shows a stylised € sign consisting of the arch‐shaped text "ČLANICA EUROPODRUČJA" (member of the euro area) and the two‐line indication of the issuing country "HRVATSKA" (Croatia) and the year of issue "2023.". To the right of this is the chequered pattern that forms the shield of the Croatian coat of arms and is an easily recognisable symbol of Croatia. The coin was produced without a mint mark at the Croatian mint Hrvatska kovnica novca d.o.o. in Sveta Nedelja.

🔎		Cyprus	02 Oct. 2023	60th anniversary of the establishment of the Central Bank of Cyprus	20003 20005	412,000	•
	Description :

🔎		Slovakia	11 Oct. 2023	200th anniversary of the start of regular horse‐drawn express mail service between Vienna and Bratislava	20003 20005	1,000,000	•
	Description :

🔎		Belgium	25 Oct. 2023	75 Years of Women's Suffrage in Belgium	20003 20005	130,000	•
	Description :

🔎		Vatican City	27 Oct. 2023	150th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni	20003 20005	78,500	•
	Description :

🔎		Portugal	15 Nov. 2023	Peace	20003 20005	515,000	•
	Description :

🔎		Andorra	27 Nov. 2023	30. anniversary od Andorra's accession to the UN	20003 20005	70,000	•
	Description :

🔎		Andorra	27 Nov. 2023	Fire festivals for the summer solstice	20003 20005	70,000	•
	Description :

🔎		Slovenia	19 Dec. 2023	150th birthday of Josip Plemelj	20003 20005	1,000,000	•
	Work in progress

⇓ 2024 ⇓

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	Images taken with authorisation by H....... Hamburg	20004	Coloured version of this Commemorative Coin in circulation EU‐legal‐technical specifications do not recongnise colour prints. The EU nevertheless tolerates them, as their numbers are very small and 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
20007	Images taken by Münzen Kreuzberg © "Münzen Kreuzberg 2021"	20008	enlarged Images taken by Münzen Kreuzberg © "Münzen Kreuzberg 2021"
20009	Text with kind permission by Gerd Seyffert © "Gerd Seyffert 2023"	20010	Not Applicable