Rare 2 Euro Coins

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Hullo and welcome to my Euro Coins Internet site.


I , like all those living in the Eurozone, was mildly interested in the Euro when it burst into our lives on January 1st 2002. At first I only came into contact with German Euro Coins but slowly with the free flow of people and money within the Eurozone other interesting coins from France,Holland,Greece,Ireland...began to appear on the scene.


Rare 2 Euro Coins Greece

This led at first to a somewhat perfunctory collecting of the new arrivals that I received as change.

I then bought a cheap pre-punched folder into which I put the Euro Coins from the different Euro countries (12 at that time).Then I bought a book on Euromünzen(Euro Coins) and soon discovered that there was a wealth of interesting facts concerning the Euro in general and Euro Coins in particular.


I have since become an enthusiastic collector of Euro Coins and look forward to sharing with you via my internet site some of the fascinating things I have learned regarding Euro Coins over the last few years.



To start with let me clarify what I mean by Euro Coins - I refer to the coins used throughout the eurozone as the normal means of payment.

A number of 'exotic' Euro Coins are minted in each country with face values differing from the standard coins-e.g. 3 € , 10 € 100 € coins. These are valid only within the country they were minted in as a means of payment (legal tender) .They are however minted solely for collectors and allowing them to be used as a means of payment is simply a trick to avoid having to pay value added tax on them.

These 'exotic' coins are not (at least not yet) covered in my site.

Most Rare 2 Euro Coins


OK the stage is now set and I invite you to browse around my site - I'm sure you'll find much of interest and a number of lesser known and curious facts about the Euro.



Coins

First of all some basic facts about the Euro.


To avoid confusion - theEuro first became official currency in 2002 although from 1999 it was an'electronic currency' used by banks and the financial markets. Somecountries had started minting coins from 1999 - these however only came intocirculation at the beginning of 2002.

Some states (e.g. Andorra ) havethe Euro as their official currency although they do not mint any coins oftheir own. This has now changed - since 2014 Andorra now has its own coins minted. Other states (Monaco,San Marino and the Vatican) although they mint theirown coins are not members of the European Union.


Although to collect all the Euro coins produced is beyond most people's budgets (although still doable),by selecting a suitable sub niche of the market a modest outlay will enable you to complete your chosen niche - every collector's dream!


The eight Euro Coin denominations incirculation are:

  • 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent - copper coloured
  • 10 cent,20 cent, 50 cent - brass coloured
  • 1 Euro - silver centre surrounded by a gold ring
  • 2 Euro - gold centre surrounded by a silver ring.

One side of the Euro coins remains the same regardless of the country it was minted in. This is the common side that displays the value of the coin.


On the other side (National Side) a motif (or several motifs ) appear which are representative of the country of issue.


Euro Coins By Country


This varies from only one motif e.g. Ireland to 8 motifs e.g. Greece.
Details of the motifs are given in the pages dealing with the respective countries.

At the present time (2017)there are 23 states that mint their own Euro coins - these together with the yearwhen they commenced minting are listed (alphabetically) below.


Countries and years of Minting


Country
Year of MintingCountry
Year of Minting
Andorra2014Austria2002
Belgium1999Cyprus2008
Estonia2011Finland1999
France1999Germany2002
Greece2002Ireland2002
Italy2002Latvia2014
Lithuania2015Luxenbourg2002
Malta2008Monaco2001
Netherland1999Portugal2002
San Marino2002Slovakia2009
Slovenia2007Spain1999
Vatican2002

Commemorative Coins.
Initially it was decided that the country specific sides of the Euro coins could not be changed. This decision was reversed in 2004 which in effect gave birth to the two Euro commemorative coins (also known as commemorative issues) - a welcome decision for collectors.
The new freedom was however circumscribed with certain conditions and recommendations.
Firstly to preserve a sense of continuity and to avoid the general public becoming confused it was decreed that the standard national side could not be changed before 2008 unless the head of state depicted on the coin should die beforehand. (This did in fact happen in the case on Monaco and the Vatican).
Frequency: Each country may only issue one commemorative per year.

As from 2013 this will be changed to two commemorative coins per year.
Quantity : The number of commemorative coins issued by any country in a year is restricted to the larger of:
a ) 0,1 % of the total number of 2 Euro coins in circulation in the whole Euro zone.
(this limit can be increased to 2 % if an event of special significance is to be
commemorated but then the issuing country may not issue any further commemorative 2 Euro coins for four years)
b) 5 % of the 2 Euro coins in circulation in the country issuing the commemorative coin.
There have been three general commemorative issues - where the coins were issued by all members of the European Union who are also in the Euro zone.


These were:

  • 2007 commemorating the signing of the Rome Agreement
  • 2009 commemorating 10 years of the European customs union.
  • 2012 commemorating 10 years of the Euro as official currency in the Euro zone.
  • 2015 commemorating 30 years of the European flag representing the EU.


The design on these issues was the same for all countries , the name of the issuing country is however also shown.
States were allowed to issue their own national commemorative 2 Euro coins in these years - so in effect the rule allowing only one commemorative coin per year was relaxed in this instance.
Note these general commemorative coins were not issued by Monaco, San Marino or the Vatican as although they are in the Euro zone, they are not members of the European union.

Rare



Last week we brought you the five steps to value a coin. This week we will get deeper in on e of the steps of that valuation process. Precisely we bring you some examples on how the existence of a variation or and error can make a regular coin into a extremely desired object by some collectors.

We have to pay more attention to the coins that go through our hands, we might be wasting a great opportunity and the coin we are using to pay for our coffee should end up in a coin sale for a prices 50 times its facial value.

Variants

We already told you this week that variants are small changes on the original design of a coin or on the material with which they are made of. This changes are, sometimes, almost imperceptible, so most of the people don’t even notice them. But for the eye of an expert collector they mean the difference between junk and a really good investment.

In the post dedicated to the Standard World Coin Catalog we talked about the assignment of a KM (unique id) for each type of coin. In that catalog variants are also classified, although instead of having a new KM, the variants are identified by adding a new letter or number to the original KM. I.e. in the case of the 2.5 Euro Portuguese coins, the letter is used to distinguish between the silver or gold minted version instead of the regular mint in copper-nickel.

2.50 Euro (70 years of peace in Europe)
Available: 4
From: 3.50 €
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2.50 Euro (40th Anniv. of The Provedor da Justica)
Sell this coin

Errors

There are collectors that do not value error coins at all and they actually try to get rid of them as soon as possible, truth is that the interest in coins with errors is increasing. It’s a very interesting type of collecting specially for those collecting current coins, since some of the coins for his collection can suddenly be found among the circulating coins. Making the art of coins collection a continuous activity.

There are a lot of errors that can be produced during the process of minting a coin, although, as we already said the ones that are more valued are those that do not affect the integrity of the coin. In these cases, the mintage of the coin has being properly completed. It is not a mint process fault (broken die, dirty, lack of material, etc.) but it is a design that contains unique details. Mostly this is due to human errors.

Here you have some of the most common errors during the minting process of the two coin Euro commemorative coins.

2 Euro Commemorative Coin 10 Anniversary Of The Economic Monetary Union - Big Stars.

It is a coin dedicated to the 10th Anniversary of the Economic Monetary Union by the Spanish mint FNMT during last 2009. There are no official data regarding the minting error as well as in the number of minted coins, estimated between 75.000 and 100.000

The minting error is in the coin with the big stars and it originated through the Pantograph, precisely when changing the scale from the epoxy model to the die. Basically the error consists in an expansion of the little star surrounding the coin, minting the coin in a scale of 1:1.27 approximately.

According to the operator in charge of the minting, the coin with big stars was created the firs day. The error was fixed lately and the mintage continued until the 8.000.000 final coins. The coins containing errors were mixed among the correct rolls. This is the reason why we don’t know the exact number of erroneous coins, which contributed to an increase on the market price.

Two Euro Coin From Germany, 2008 - Old Map

From 2007 and due to the incorporations of different countries to the Euro, the map on the obverse of the coins was changed, and the map with the countries of the European union before its expansion, with 15 countries changes to 25, representing all the European union members up to 2004. This way the new countries in the common coin will also be represented in the map.

But in the commemorative two Euro coins for the rotating presidency of the bundesrat: Free and hanseatic city of Hamburg, minted in 2008, the old map was used (smaller than the new design and containing frontiers) even though they should have used the new one already (pointed and without frontiers).

2 Euro (Hamburg/Michael Church)
Available: 35
From: 3.00 €
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This error only appears on the coins minted in the mint of Sttutgard (identified by the letter F). It is estimated that after they took some of them of the market, from a total of 50.000 coins there might be around 25.000 coins circulating.

The 1 Cent Face Value Coin That Costs 6.600 Euro

Rare euro coins

As a very flashy case we bring you the case of this Italian coin of 1 Euro cent sold for more than 6.600 Euro. A revaluation that not even the noble metal minted coin get.

On the 9th of January of 2002, when the euro just had got to Europe, in the press this new showed up:

The Rome District’s attorney has open an investigation after the appearance of ‘fault cent euro coins’, and they might have been introduced voluntarily in the ‘Euro Starter Kits’ by a worker of the Italian National Coin Institute.
The defective coins are the same diameter of the two cents coin and they have the same drawing, but they have written a face value of one cent. A dozen of these coins have already been found, specially in the north of Italy.

Error:

2 Euro Cent (Turin - Mole Antonelliana Tower)
Available: 8
From: 19.99 €
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1 Euro Cent (Bari - The Castel del Monte)
Available: 8
From: 1.50 €
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An undetermined number of coins was taken away by the authorities, before they could circulate, however it is speculated that a few hundreds can still be part of some fortunates collections.

Six of these coins where bought by the Italian collection company Bolaffi, although they had problem with this investment, and the “Guardia di Finanza” confiscated them claiming that the coins are actually property of the Italian mint.

Rare 2 Euro Coins Republic Of Ostrich

Only after 11 years of dispute, a court from Rome admitted the right of the company to posses and sell these coins. Finally when they went on auction their price raised up to 6.600 Euro.

Special Mints

If we did not where lucky with the coin in our hands and this coin is not a variant or has no error at all, we can’t still throw in the towel. It might still be a special edition and thanks to that it might have a higher value.

Rare 2 Euro Coins 2001

There are only 20.001 coins, price right now is approx 1500 €:

2 Euro (Princess Grace)
Available: 1
From: 30.00 €
Buy this coin
Rare 2 euro coins republic of ostrich

In some of the coin catalogs, i.e. in the Standard World Coin Catalog that we commented a few weeks ago, it is included information regarding the mint volume each year. In general the coin houses carry on big mints of the regular circulating coins, although there are some years that due to problems in manufacture, political decisions, economics or administrative make a lower mint that year. For the collectors focused in coins per year, this years mints are usually very valued.

Low mintage in 2002:

2 Euro (First Map Design)
Available: 72
From: 2.50 €
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Low mintage in 2005 and 2006:

2 Euro (First Map Design)
Available: 216
From: 2.50 €
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Low mintage in 2006:

50 Euro Cent
Available: 13
From: 1.00 €
Buy this coin

This reduced mints are also frequent in the case of commemorative coins or special ones or in those countries where they are not the ones minting their circulating coins, like San Marino, Monaco, or Vatican City. In them, due to the low number of annual mints the coins don’t even get out to circulate but they are just bought as collection editions.

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Is my coin really a treasure?