Collecting the Euro Coins

Just read the article in this months issue of Coin Values on the different varieties of the new Euro. What's the best way to go about starting to collect these coins.

I have never owned a single coin that wasnt minted here in the US, so I'm totally in the dark here.

 

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Well I suppose I would want 1 of each coin minted. I know that there are 12 Countries and 8 Basic coins per country so that makes 96 coins per year(I'm assuming that they are dated?). HMMM. Was it 1992 that they started minting them?

Also curious about other set there are other than the 12 countires. I seem to see a bunch of these "Pope" coins. What's the deal with those? Are they regular coins for circulation or more like our commretives?

Finally, What other Euro coins were minted? or did they actually stop at the 2 Euro?

Oh Yeah.. What the heck are they made of? Silver?, Copper?, Dirt?

 

I have the Euro 50 state quarters set from the mint. It looks nice, but honestly I just don't like the Euro. I liked it a lot more when the nations had their own currency.

 

Buying Euros

I've bought Euros from this guy twice, and very satisfied with his coins and service.

http://www.fleur-de-coin.com/coinshop.asp?sec=7

JonySky

 

Vatican City is an independent country ( which the Pope is the head of state) completly surrounded by Rome. Before the Euro, Vatican City had a monterey agreement with Italy, they issued liras that circulated with Italian liras. When Italy changed to the Euro so did the Vatican. Technically some of the Vatican Euros are intended to circulate, but there are so few of them most of them are being scooped up by collectors. Also some of the Pope coins you see are commeratives issued by other countries, to honour Pope John Paul II. So to answer your question yes and yes.

 

Also San Marino and Monaco are independent country in that they can mint their own coins. Actually San Marino (as for Vatican) coins are issued by Rome, and Monaco by Paris
At the moment you have 15 states issuing coins in euros. The three "micro" states as stated above, mint so few coins that they become expensive very quickly after they are issued.
The begining of euro was 01-01-2002 and not 1992, but for some reasons, some countries started to produce in 1999. Then you can easily find euros struck in 1999, 2000, 2001 from France, Spain, Belgium, Finland, Nederlands and 2001 from Monaco
Hope it helps
Cucumbor

 

I've started collecting 2005 2 euro comms, I like the Bi-metallic coins. I was also fortunate to own some Monaco, San Marino and Vatican euros which tend to increase in price.

 

Well, the "beginning" of the euro was on 1-Jan-1999. That is when the euro, as a currency, replaced the old currencies. Since that day, stocks in Euroland have been traded in €, you could transfer money in € etc. But it took three more years until the euro cash was issued and became legal tender. So some countries picked 1999 as the first year to appear on the euro coins while others picked 2002 ... and Monaco is in between.

Production of the coins started in May 1998, by the way. If I was to begin collecting euro coins now, I would leave the three "mini-countries" out. Too expensive, by and large. And next year, or in 2008, there will be some more euro countries anyway, so the collection will get big enough without the three.

Side note: Once these new countries (Estonia and Slovenia for example) join Euroland, they will use a new version of the "map" that can be found on the euro coins. The European Council presented the updated design last year - with a map that will simply show Europe, not just the European Union or the EU-15 as the current pieces do.

Christian

 

I believe its do to the fact that these countries have laws stating coins can only bear the year they were minted in, and many of the Euro countries began minting in 1999 even though they did not circulate untill 2002.

 

Here is some more info from the European Commission's website:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/euro/our_currency_en.htm

One thing that is a little odd in my opinion is that there are two types of "special" coins. First, the so-called "commemorative coins"; those are €2 pieces (legal tender in all euro countries) that have a special obverse:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance/euro/notes_and_coins/commemorative_coins_en.htm

Beyond that, there are "collector coins" - usually made from precious metals - which are legal tender in the issuing member state only. They don't really circulate, but many of them are nicely designed.

Christian

 

rlowe,If ya wanna do it the easy Mikjo way,you can find lots of online dealers that will sell you all 96 coins in one deal..I did this and slapped them in a Dansco
#7400 album Euro Coinage,European Union.I think I paid $115 and maybe $25 for the album although I suspect the coins might be going for a bit higher now.
If you're REALLY lucky,relatives living in Europe will send you some "gem" examples (see pic) for Christmas.In fairness,these were actually a bribe to get me to come visit them in Greece,all expenses paid..hehe

 

As I understand it, Vatican euros are taken out of Italy's euro limit. I think one of the Concordats between the Vatican and Italy talks about it. I believe it's percentage based. In other words, if Italy gets to mint 1,000,000 1 euro coins, and the Vatican gets .005 percent of the Italian mintage, 5,000 Vatican 1 euro coins are minted.

 

How many coins the Vatican may issue is dealt with in the "Monetary Convention" between the European Union and the Vatican City State. And yes, the Vatican's contingent is basically taken from the Italian issue volume.

However, the conventions that involve Italy (ie. those with San Marino and the Vatican) include absolute figures. The Vatican may issue coins worth €1m per year, with extra contingents on special occasions such as last year's Vacant See. San Marino has an annual contingent of about €2m.

The "percentage" model that you mentioned applies to Monaco. That country can issue coins worth 1/500 of the French issue volume. Not much ... but from time to time somebody actually comes across a Monegasque euro or cent coin in the wild.

Christian

 

Any idea why San Marino has a larger figure than the Vatican? I would think it would be the other way around?

 

Good question ... As you mentioned, the current monetary conventions are more or less continuations of previous (lire based) agreements that SM and VA had with Italy. I think these conventions and agreements tried and try to take both the population (San Marino: about 30,000 - Vatican: less than 1,000) and the number of interested collectors into account.

Christian