Question about Euros

[RHM22]

This may seem stupid, but I've recently acquired an interest in Euro coins, but I really don't know much about them. My question is this: Do the coins of Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City actually circulate? I only ask because those 'nations' are very small, and I can't possibly imagine why they would need to issue circulating coins of their own.

Thanks in advance for answering my stupid question!

[Bimat]

The answer is simple and small, NO!
Theoretically,they should circulate,practically they don't.However,some of them have been reported in circulation,but that's not so common.
The commemorative 2 euro coins do not (and will not)circulate at all,since their issue price is far more than the face value,and strictly speaking,they are NCLT only.

Aditya

[RHM22]

Thanks for the answer! Someone had mentioned something about the 2 Euro commemoratives, but I haven't seen one in person. Why do those countries mint coins at all? Are they sold for more than face value, or is it just a law that all Euro countries must follow?

[Bimat]

Even if you keep aside these 3 micro nations,2 euro commemoratives from Finland and Slovenia hardly circulate (not my experience,of course ).Most common are the German,Italian and French commemoratives,since they have pretty high mintage (for example every German commemorative so far had a mintage of 30 million).Do Belgian and Luxembourgian euros(I mean CCs) circulate?
And if we consider the American commemoratives,they have a huge mintage,but the presidential dollars do not circulate,as most of my relatives who are settled in US didn't even know that they exist The only circulating American commemoratives are the state quarters,I guess?

Aditya

[RHM22]

That's essentially true. State quarters circulate heavily, but presidential dollars don't. They're meant to circulate, and the treasury really wants them to circulate, but no one wants to use a dollar coin.

[a3v1]

The answer is simple and small, NO!
Theoretically,they should circulate,practically they don't.However,some of them have been reported in circulation,but that's not so common.

Aditya,
In fact the answer is less simple than you are stating.
Hundreds of thousands of San Marino and Monaco Euro coins have been struck exclusively for circulation. They don't circulate anymore as they have been picked up by collectors and the coin trade.
And Vatican City is sort of forced to issue 2,3 million 50 cent 2010 coins for circulation.
Regards,
a3v1

[chrisild]

Why do those countries mint coins at all? Are they sold for more than face value, or is it just a law that all Euro countries must follow?

Keep in mind that these three (Monaco, San Marino, Vatican) are not EU members. They issue euro coins because they have monetary agreements with the European Union.

In the pre-euro years, Monaco had such an agreement with France, and San Marino and the Vatican had similar agreements with Italy. These agreements allowed them to issue franc (MC) and lira (SM, VA) coins which actually circulated to some extent. So when the euro came, the three countries had various options: Issue their own money in some local currency (not very practical if the country is pretty small), simply use the euro without issuing any money (Andorra for example has never used any circulation coins but simply used what the neighbors France and Spain used), or ... make some euro agreement.

As a3v1 mentioned, both Monaco and San Marino have already issued (some) coins for circulation. The Vatican is supposed to do that too, according to the amended monetary agreement (see this topic). So we may see some papal euro pieces in the wild this year ...

Christian

[Bimat]

Aditya,
In fact the answer is less simple than you are stating.
Hundreds of thousands of San Marino and Monaco Euro coins have been struck exclusively for circulation. They don't circulate anymore as they have been picked up by collectors and the coin trade.
And Vatican City is sort of forced to issue 2,3 million 50 cent 2010 coins for circulation.

I know that San Marinese euro coins do circulate and are often found in circulation (they have quite high mintage figures too-for example 2009 1 euro coin has a mintage of 1 million-sufficient for a small country like this),but I haven't heard of anyone finding Monégasque/Vatican euro coin in change. 

Can these 3 micro nations issue coins denominated in Lire/Franc if they want? Anyway they are not members of EU,so it should not create any problem..

Aditya

[chrisild]

Can these 3 micro nations issue coins denominated in Lire/Franc if they want? Anyway they are not members of EU,so it should not create any problem..

Depends on what they want. These countries can of course cancel the agreements they have with the EU, and then issue whatever they like to issue. But as long as they want to have euro coins, the monetary agreements apply - and those say something like: "The (country name) shall not issue any banknote, coin or monetary surrogate of any kind unless the conditions for such issuance have been agreed with the European Union."

Actually San Marino issues scudo gold coins (2 scudi, 5 scudi) in addition to the euro coins. That seems to be OK.

Christian

[Sir Sisu]

Even if you keep aside these 3 micro nations,2 euro commemoratives from Finland and Slovenia hardly circulate (not my experience,of course ). . . .

Aditya

Perhaps the 2€ commems from Finland do not circulate much in other EU nations, but they do circulate in Finland. But then again, €2 commems from other EU nations hardly ever circulate in Finland. 

[bart]

The same thing applies to Belgium: the Belgian 2 euro commemoratives have a mintage of several millions (mostly 5-6 million) and are easily found in circulation . On the other hand: I see commemorative 2 euro coins from other countries from time to time, but certainly not very often: most of them are from the Netherlands and Germany.

Bart

[andyg]

Perhaps the 2€ commems from Finland do not circulate much in other EU nations, but they do circulate in Finland. But then again, €2 commems from other EU nations hardly ever circulate in Finland. 

Was the 2004 commemorative issue found in change at the time - or were these all sold to dealers in rolls?
I've never understood quite why the price is so high on these.

[Sir Sisu]

Was the 2004 commemorative issue found in change at the time - or were these all sold to dealers in rolls?
I've never understood quite why the price is so high on these.

Yes the 2004 could be found in change at the time, and if one is lucky, still can be found. I found 3 or 4 of these myself in circulation within the following year after they were released (I got another one around 2008 from the ubiquitous slot machines that are at every grocery/convenient store/gas station, etc. in Finland. How many are still hiding in these slot machines? ). Unlike the subsequent commemoratives, these 2€ were packed into the same rolls as the normal 2€ issues for 2004, not seperate ones.

When this coin was being released, interested people could sign up to receive one for face value. If I remember correctly approximately 100,000 pcs were set aside for this method. These were issued in capsules and mailed directly to people. And I'm guessing many of these were hoarded. And as this was one of the first cc to be released, you can imagine there was a fair demand for these all around the EU countries. And since dealers were not able to order rolls of these specifically to satisfy demand . . .

[RHM22]

Thanks for all the interesting responses. One more question; Should I photograph my Euro coin rolls and add them to the website so others can see them, or would that be too bland and uninteresting?

[andyg]

The picture below is bland and uninteresting,  Anything else - then go for it!