France to introduce new 10 cent, 20 cent and 50 cent coins 2024

[eurocoin]

The European Commission has rejected the new designs for the French 10, 20 and 50 euro cent coins. 27 million pieces had already been minted and will be destroyed. The designs will be amended.

[Jostein]

The designs are beautiful, I wish Spain and other countries with boring and bad designs would decide to do the same.

On the other hand, it strikes me that, as I had understood, the 12 EU stars were supposed to be seen in an uncluttered way, with nothing in the background, and in this case they are completely merged with the design to the point that they are barely distinguishable.

Best,

F

The French press confirms the news. The coins will be melted and the design will have to be revised.

I said it last December 8th

If someone manages to save some of these pieces, they could be worth a fortune in the future.

Best,

F

[JMP]

Today "Politico" wrote:

"PARIS — France has destroyed and reminted 27 million coins after failing to ask the EU for design approval and then being told they didn't conform.

The Monnaie de Paris, the country's mint, produced the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins with a new pattern in November but later discovered that the way the stars of the EU flag had been depicted was not compliant with the European Commission's very precise requirements.

Under EU law, countries can change the design of the "national" face of euro coins every 15 years, but they need the green light from the Commission as well as other eurozone governments, which have to be informed and have seven days to raise objections."

[<k>]

France melts down millions of coins because EU says its stars don't look right.

The design of the new coins proposed by the French government and validated by the Commission is still a secret and will be unveiled before the spring, the French economy ministry said.

[Big_M]

Completely amateurish from the French goverment.

The requirement to have the stars surrounding the design clearly visible is explictly mentioned in Article 6 of COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) No 729/2014  of 24 June 2014  on denominations and technical specifications of euro coins intended for circulation.

It is not an obscure internal document of the European Commission created by faceless EU bureaucrats but a law agreed by the European Council e.g. voted by all EU members. France should have been perfectly aware of the rules.

[augsburger]

Well, you can say it's amateurish, but looking at the French coins that exist now, and the new ones, what's the difference?

A lot of the Euro coins have a ring around the design.

For example the Estonian coins.

But the French coins have the stars within part of the design of the lines.




The only difference seems to be that the stars go over the RF and the hair and body....

[Figleaf]

Well spotted, Augsburger! This is typically the civil servants' way: nobody is interested until someone objects. Then, everyone is interested.

There are two suspects that could have gotten the ball rolling. The most obvious is the Commission service responsible for euro coin design. They may have discovered, like Jostein did that there is an infraction of the rules, never thinking about precedents, like Augsburger did.

A less innocent but also less likely version is that some (Flemish?) people in the Belgian government are still smarting about the French rejection of the Waterloo design. That would give them a motive to use the same set of rules against a French design. This may seem childish, but this sort of thing happens.

Peter

[Big_M]

I suggest you read Article 11 of the Regulation before coming to your speculative conclusions. Non-compliant national sides that were in place in 2012 can be used until 2062. However, all new designs have to be compliant.

Also have a look at the 2022 introduced French 1 and 2 euro coins which are fully compliant with the rules.

[Figleaf]

My remarks were not on the regulation, but on its implementation.

Peter

[augsburger]

I suggest you read Article 11 of the Regulation before coming to your speculative conclusions. Non-compliant national sides that were in place in 2012 can be used until 2062. However, all new designs have to be compliant.

Also have a look at the 2022 introduced French 1 and 2 euro coins which are fully compliant with the rules.

Wellllll, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany and Greece all had problems with their Euro coins from the initial batch and were forced to replace those coins, which they did around 2007 or 2008.

France has a design that "broke the rules" perhaps, or perhaps not. They were not required to change their design.

"The national side of circulation coins shall bear a circle of 12 stars that shall fully surround the national design, including the year mark and the indication of the issuing Member State's name. This shall not prevent some design elements from extending into the circle of stars, provided that the stars are all clearly and fully visible. The 12 stars shall be depicted as on the Union flag."

Okay, do these new coins control the 12 stars? Yes. Do they "surround the national design"? This can be interpreted in different ways. Yes, it surrounds the design, no, some of the design is on the outside of this.

The designs that had to be changed in 2007/8 were ones where the stars were not equally spaced like with Belgium, as on the EU flag. France's new designs have the stars in the right spacing etc.

Greece has coins where the stars are within the design. Lithuania made coins from 2015 onwards where the horse's legs protrude into the circle of stars. Spain has the "E" from "Espana" between the stars.

Are the stars fully visible? Yes. However you could say they're not if you take the star in the R for RF as not being "fully visible...

The source you posted says "This shall not prevent some design elements from extending into the circle of stars, provided that the stars are all clearly and fully visible."

Well, again, "clearly and fully visible" is debatable here, and I'm betting the new coins will try and make the stars more independent within the design.

The only real reason seems to be that France didn't inform first and someone's playing petty politics. I can't see France's design as breaking the rules unless pedantry is your first name.

[Big_M]

The corrected versions have just been revealed.

Official picture by MdP

[<k>]

I can't see the difference.

The supposed original versions are seen above.


Oh, there is a hole at the bottom, to let the stars peep through.

It was hardly worth the effort.

[andyg]

so question, do the new ones meet the criteria?
They still obscure the stars in places?

[Angus]

"The national side of circulation coins shall bear a circle of 12 stars that shall fully surround the national design, including the year mark and the indication of the issuing Member State's name. This shall not prevent some design elements from extending into the circle of stars, provided that the stars are all clearly and fully visible. The 12 stars shall be depicted as on the Union flag."

They're leaning heavily on the second sentence while pretty much ignoring the first one.

[eurocoin]

I had not expected that this new version would be approved.