2015: Common "European Flag" €2 Issue

[chrisild]

You can find the planned issue on page 15 of the INCM (Portuguese Mint) program for 2015:
https://www.incm.pt/portal/arquivo/numismatica/plano_numismatico_2015.pdf

Also see the attached screenshot ...

Christian

[Bimat]

So another common issue is almost confirmed now. Collecting all €2 coins this year is NOT going to be easy!

Aditya

[augsburger]

Is it going to be common or just for Portugal? Perhaps there are clues there I'm not reading.

[Bimat]

Since Greece has also announced the 'European Flag' issue, it's now confirmed that there will be a common issue this year.

Aditya

[augsburger]

Another says Malta has confirmed THREE two Euro commemoratives for 2015, the last being the flag. They seem to suggest that designs have already been submitted and potentially they've chosen already. Maybe no vote on this one, the EU probably doesn't trust the people to give a design the EU wants.

[chrisild]

As for the EU bashing, that is getting old. But yes, Malta also lists the issue. See the attached screenshot.

Christian

[Illioplius]

I am already decided not to collect this issue.

First of all, there is no need to commemorate the European flag on a coin. Almost every euro coin already depicts the flag – twelve stars. The European flag will be probably depicted on the commemorative coins, so there will be something like "flag in the flag on the coin". Absurd.

Secondly, I am against the common issues and the coin overflow. If they just set the topic and let every member state to decide about the design, that would be actually interesting. But nobody needs about twenty coins looking almost the same. Also, the coin overflow worries me.

[augsburger]

Yeah, I'm the same, I haven't even got the last common issue, I will collect anything, if I get a coin I'll keep it, but I haven't bought any 2 euro coins for years now.

[chrisild]

If they just set the topic and let every member state to decide about the design, that would be actually interesting.

That is what the Euro/Star program is for. One common theme, and every participating country picks its own design. Used to be silver collector coins; now it can be pretty much everything. This year's French "Peace" €2 coin, for example, has that logo too.

No, I am basically OK with a common issue that has just one design. But in my opinion, that should indeed be one type then, issued by all euro area member states like the euro notes are. Since that would mean touching some holy grail it won't come to that. Consequence for me - just as I do not need five German coins (A-D-F-G-J) per issue, just one, I plan to get precisely one of these European Flag coins.

Christian

[Illioplius]

That is what the Euro/Star program is for. One common theme, and every participating country picks its own design. Used to be silver collector coins; now it can be pretty much everything. This year's French "Peace" €2 coin, for example, has that logo too.

No, I am basically OK with a common issue that has just one design. But in my opinion, that should indeed be one type then, issued by all euro area member states like the euro notes are. Since that would mean touching some holy grail ;) it won't come to that. Consequence for me - just as I do not need five German coins (A-D-F-G-J) per issue, just one, I plan to get precisely one of these European Flag coins.

Christian

All right, but if this system (star program) works, why can't it be applied for common commemorative issues as well? I mean, where is the "unity in diversity" in the common issues? :D All I see is the same design used on plenty of coins which makes it boring and unoriginal.

"Eurozone" as the issuing entity is quite sensitive matter, but if it works with the banknotes (no national symbols, name of country etc.) why can't it work with common issues as well? But still, better than the experiments like this, no common issues would be better solution – in my opinion.

[chrisild]

Well, I collect the coins that I find interesting and/or attractive. This way the "no common issues" policy applies to me.   One will be enough for my collection. If we had 19 different designs instead ... I would have to pay more, hehe.

Christian

[chrisild]

From the Design Requirements published by the Central Bank of Cyprus ...

The compulsory elements of the coin are:
- on the outer ring: the 12 stars of the European flag completely surrounding the design;
- in the inner circle: the year 2015 (e.g. "2015" or "1985-2015") and the text "ISSUING COUNTRY" (that will be replaced by the name of each country in its language(s) on the coin to be issued).
The design should preferably not include any other text in order to avoid possible translation difficulties and to limit the difficulties for those countries having several national languages. However, if there is a text, it should be extremely short and in English. The design shall be drawn up in such a way that, where applicable a mint mark can be added in the inner circle of the coin. Furthermore, a design in the form of a map should preferably be avoided since it might be seen as repetitive to have a geographical representation on both sides of the coin.

More information here. The page has a language menu at the top (English | Ελληνικά), so depending on what you see, you may want to switch. Thanks to numisfreund from a German forum; as far as I can tell, that info has not been published online by the European Commission yet.

Christian

[chrisild]

We have five finalists - you may now vote:
http://www.coin-competition.eu

Edit: I attached screenshots of the five designs, from "FlagA" (very left on the voting page) to "FlagE" (very right). Tried to make them roughly the same size ...

Christian

[chrisild]

Some comments and side notes:
* As usual, anybody in the euro area (i.e. citizens and residents) may vote.
* You can get an enlarged view by moving the mouse/pointer across a design. Right-click (or whatever it takes to get a context menu) to view/download that design.
* Do that five times, and you have seen (or downloaded) them all.

In my opinion, none of the five designs is thrilling or exciting. But at least you can tell that the five finalists did not simply pick the ring of stars and nothing else as the design. Guess I will just get one, maybe from Germany or some other "high volume" issuer ...

Christian

[augsburger]

I voted for the second one, I don't particularly like the design too much, but compared to the other ones it's the best.