Stories on and behind the coins

[JMP]

What was happening in Andorra in 2014 and 2015 ?

The press had published the design of the €2CC to be issued in December 2014.
And for 2015 again, two designs were shown to be issued in that year.
Collectors all over the world were waiting, but no €2CC's showed up      .

Finally, in March 2016 the coin with 2014 date,"20 years membership Counsel of Europe" was issued.
And in July 2016, the two coins for 2015 came on the market:"30 years voting right at 18" and "25 years Customs Agreement".

Why so late ?

In 2014, the American FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) started an investigation at Andorra's BPA-bank, which was suspected having money laundring as core business.
The whole operation disturbed Andorra's financial sector seriously and brought the mini state in difficulties.
Finally it seemed the FinCEN started its investigation without solid proof and the storm passed.

[JMP]

Slovakia again!
For 2015 they planned to issue a coin commemorating the writer Ľudovít Štúr.

The original design took its time to get published worldwide in the press. But ...hey, when the coin got struck, the writers' lifespan was, (in accordance with reality), shortened with 9 years     !

[JMP]

I was very happy when I heard about Malta's plans to issue, over seven years, a series of their most known  prehistoric temples and decided directly, I would keep the coins together and present them as a series.

Most of those temples are a thousand years older than the Great Piramid of Ghiza and when the builders in Stonehenge began their construction, the Temples of Malta were "medieval ruins" already. So, a little bit more attention for this prehistoric heritage is appropriate.

I visited them all in 1986. In those days you got a simple rubber stamp on a piece of paper as entry ticket and once inside, you could go, stand and sit where you liked.

Take a look on the internet to see the Temples in their real glory!

[JMP]

Mind you, those seven Temples are only the crown jewels out of Malta's prehistoric treasure chest, there is much more.
See underneath (image Midsea Books):
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Maltese-Islands-are-literally-studded-with-archaeological-sites-This-map-shows_fig2_296680369

[JMP]

Now, let me present you those of our beloved "unelected bureaucrats", whoes function was of influence on the euro or the eurozone. They brought us where we are today and even now it is their pleasure to illustrate my collection.
They are all there, scattered over the pages of the years they came in function. They, the French president, the German chancellor and their successors:

[JMP]

Intermezzo 2009 ...

The common design for the €2CC "10 Years E.M.U." could be chosen by all EU citizens.

During some weeks, the design shown on the first picture here underneath was way ahead.
Until, to my opinion, the E.C.B. noticed the public was about to choose the logo of a major european bank. All of a sudden, that design did not get votes anymore and was surpassed by the primitive guy, who became the winner:

[JMP]

Illustration of a reverses side:

The coat of arms of the six founding member states of the EEC, later the EU :

[JMP]

Here are four more designs of which nobody has ever seen the coins:

The French 2008 "50 years of 5th French Republic" was simply not realised.
(This design, like the next, is nowhere to find on the internet anymore).
In 2018 Belgium issued a €2 coin with another design for the same theme.
The Italians came in 2019 with a design, which finally was used for a €5 coin.
And Luxemburg had to give up the "Charte des Nations Unies" in 2020 for the Birth of Prince Charles:

[JMP]

Those were the days of . . . 2019 !

Theresa May (29 March) nor Boris Johnson (31 october) got the Brexit done, nevertheless there was one who would have "rather been dead in a ditch" than ...  .
And in Paris, the Notre Dame was burning as a torch  .

[JMP]

I see this topic has been split of my original one.
Yes, I can see why it has been done and have no difficulties with it.
Of course there are some odd consequences, the reader can be best made aware of:

My original titel:"Where is the spirit of this category ? Where is the enthusiasm for this coins ?"
was the cry of someone who is a fervent supporter of the EU and the eurocoins. I would demonstrate, that it was easily realizable to make an attractive collection with these coins, which have an interesting history of issued and rejected designs.
Now, the topic under this "stolen" title, seems suddenly to be started by someone who is not enthusiast about these coins at all and brings on reasons to stop collecting them  .

That makes quite a difference, I find, at the verge of intention change.

[quaziright]

lol, I did notice this morning there are two new topics I apparently started.

I have some 300 x 2€cc coins between 2002-2022. I was enthusiastic about them until a few years ago, but then lost interest. I have my personal reasons not to collect them myself anymore, but everyone else is of course free to enjoy those pieces even if imo it's an annual diarrhea which gets more severe each year

[JMP]

Coin collecting, Friends, is a hobby and at its best it is a passion.
In this case, to  me it was a double passion: there were the coins and there was the European Union, which is the most amazing voluntary union of nations the world has ever seen in its whole history.

As provisional tail piece to this topic, I post today this choice of remarkable pieces of my €2CC collection amidst flashes of the E.U.'s past years.

An ode to the European Union, an ode to the joy and an ode to peace!