The euro. Notes and coins.

Euro Coins

Set 1
	on the back of :
Set 2
	on the back of :
Set 3
	on the back of

Each of the fifteen countries currently using the euro as its national currency, has chosen a different strategy for customising the coins with its own motifs. Germany, Spain, France and Portugal chose three different motifs and applied them to the three sets in the same manner as Malta did. 

Two other countries (Finland and Monaco) chose to apply 4 motifs, two different ones on the € 2 and € 1 coins, one for the second set of coins and one for the third and smallest denomination set.  Holland is the only country to apply two motifs to their coins, one for the €2/€1 coins, and another for the rest of the six coins.  

Austria, Greece, Italy and San Marino applied a different motif to each of their eight coins. Slovenia will become the fifth country in this category when it will introduce the euro as a national currency on the 1January 2007. Belgium applied motifs of the coins that were previously in circulation, Ireland applied an image of the Celtic harp, Luxembourg applied the image of the profile of His Royal Highness, Grand Duke Henri while the Vatican applied the image of the late Pope John Paul II.

The coins have distinctive security features which make them difficult to counterfeit. Furthermore, the visually impaired can benefit from user-friendly features, through different coin shapes and sizes, weight (coins of a higher denomination are heavier) and thickness.

Although each country is allowed to introduce its own motifs at the back of each coin, they can still be used in any country where the euro is accepted as legal tender. Maltese coins will be accepted in foreign shops and will therefore end up in foreign cash tills, and similarly, foreign coins will end up in local cash tills. There is absolutely no difference between the € 2 coin minted with a Maltese motif, and one with an Italian motif – all the European coins carry the same value and legal tender.

Images courtesy of the National Euro Changeover Committee and the European Central Bank.