I see that some people are very much into euros. I don't know if these people already know this, but check this link: http://www.ecb.int/euro/coins/collect/html/index.en.html it has direct links to every euro mint across the continent. What you should do to avoid ebay leeches is buy straight from the mints. However, many of these mints will also overcharge, or sell only proof sets, gold coins, etc. As an alternative, you may try to enter a euro swapping group, where people get rolls of normal sets or 2 euro commemorative and send them around.
I believe it is France for Monaco, Italy for Vatican and San Marino. These last two have their own website: http://www.vatican.va/vatican_city_state/services/stamps_coins/index.htm http://www.aasfn.sm/english/english.htm I also heard it takes a lot of effort to become a Vatican Mint client. Just as an example, you have to request catalogs by letter.
The ECB links are about euro area member states, so they do not have MC, SM and VA there. The site does however list their €2 commems too: http://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/coins/comm/html/index.en.html (Or try the European Commission http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/the_euro/coins12499_en.htm site; this link features the 2008 issues.) Right, the Monnaie de Paris produces the coins for Monaco, and the IPZS in Rome makes the pieces for San Marino and the Vatican. As for the latter, you can find some more info here: http://www.vaticanstate.va/IT/Servizi/UfficioFilatelicoeNumismatico/ Sure, the UFN sends out printed infos and order forms. So? At least you can order from them. Try that with Monaco. By the way, for Slovakia the ECB refers to the NBS (Slovakian central bank). Not exactly wrong, but it would make more sense to list the mint http://www.mint.sk/ there ... Christian
Excuse the basic question, but what is MC, SM and VA? You see, I'm not used to numismatics in english. As for collecting euros myself, I kinda dropped it. I am interested now in having one complete set from every country. That means shelling out some money eventually, for the Monaco, Vatican and San Marino. I also didn't bother to find Cyprus and Slovenia yet. The 2 euro CC are cute, but I prefer silver coins. The german are absolutely gorgeous!
Right, of course those three are countries - it's just that they are not member states of the European Union. With regard to euro coins, that means they cannot simply issue as many coins as they want but are limited by the monetary agreement that they have with the EU. Being in Euroland, I do collect the euro pieces - but I find those coins that can actually be used in the entire currency union (ie. the regular circulation pieces and the €2 commems) more interesting than those regional collector coins. The German silver pieces I collect because we can get them at face here. Do they occur in circulation? Phhhh. Christian
Hehe, I was kidding. They are independent states, of course. But for practical purposes, who cares? For example, these states are not part of the European Union. Does this really matter? Those, as well as Andorra and Liechtenstein have such small populations and are so immersed in the EU that it doesn't make a difference whether they are part of it or not. For the EU it doesn't anyway, but for such countries it makes a lot of difference. Being independent gives them more visibility and allows them to profit more from tourism.
To my knowledge, no silver euros circulate, although in my country at least (Portugal) they are considered legal currency. Who'd wanna spend that coin in the street? A german friend of mine sends me the silver 10 euro coins. Sadly, I only started this practice not long ago and have so far only 3 coins You should check the portuguese site. You can get every coin there at face value (many of the silver coins are very ugly though, plus they are only 50% silver), and the S&H is very reasonable. You can't ask for rolls, but you can have up to 5 or 10 coins of each, which would allow you to swap.
In theory you can. Just as long as you have something they want, which basically means 2 euro CC. In some of those sites, you can get them. Problem is, if you're too far away that increases shipping too much.
Yes, I have several Portuguese pieces, primarily from the World Cultural Heritage series. Except that the times of the "silver at face" issues are over AFAIK; now you have a choice of Cu-Ni (at face value) or silver (surcharged). The Dutch mint does the same thing ... For me those regional collector coins are "second class" pieces - not regarding the designs (some of them are beautiful) but when it comes to their function as means of payment. Sure, the German collector pieces are legal tender in Germany, the Portuguese ones are legal tender in Portugal, etc. But we have a currency union which is much bigger than that, and limiting the legal tender status of some coins to a small part of this area is an anachronism in my opinion. Fortunately they don't actually circulate anyway. Christian
I never heard that. It's true that this year they aren't making any, though, so maybe you're right. I don't have the whole world heritage series. To be honest I don't care for the portuguese silver euros that much anyway.
