italy, the last UME coin...

[annovi.frizio]

image

[chrisild]

Better late than never. Cannot say that I like the design, but it is good to know that all pieces from that series have now been issued.

Christian

[blackev]

I must agree with Christian, it was not the best design out of the five choices.
Actually all five choices were pretty bland.

-blackev

Better late than never. Cannot say that I like the design, but it is good to know that all pieces from that series have now been issued.

Christian

[Bimat]

What is so bad in this design,Christian? I liked it..(At-least it is better than the Indian design. )

[chrisild]

As blackev wrote, none of the five designs was really thrilling.   Since the original eurodesigncontest.eu website is down, I posted the "finalists" here: http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php/topic,915.msg5032.html#msg5032

Those five were preselected in an "internal" competition between the mints, and then all EU residents could pick one of the five via a web vote. The "€X" symbol I actually liked, but to some that may have looked like an "ex", hehe. My personal favorite (as in, well, not too bad) was #5, with the stars in the center forming a "chain" of people. The winner does not really convey "Ten Years Euro" in my opinion - and what looks neat on the Greek €1 coin (designed by the same artist), looks strange on this commem ...

Christian

[Figleaf]

In addition, the election was rigged by an email campaign in Greece, so that the design was chosen not for its quality, but for the nationality of the designer, which is the opposite of what the EU stands for. The piece is now a symbol of ugly nationalism, rather than the co-operation it could have symbolized.

Peter

[chrisild]

Right. When the results were published, I wrote to both ESN and the Austrian Mint (sample see below) but did not get a reply. Guess that, just like the many EUropeans who did not vote anyway, they did not really care ...

Christian

(...) You may be aware of the criticism that the results, or rather the circumstances, have drawn particularly in coin collectors forums. Do you know of any public source (maybe daily stats) that might explain why in the very last days - apparently in those very few days when, after casting the vote, the interim result was not displayed any more - design #2 attracted so surprisingly many more votes? And why the first version of today's results page referred to "a total of 114955 votes" while shortly afterwards the number was changed to "141675 votes" but with the very same percentage figures? Please do not get me wrong - I do not really buy the conspiracy theories that I have been reading about this today. I would simply like to learn more about how this worked. (...)