If you are a euro area citizen (or resident), you can now vote for your favorite design of this year's common €2 coin. The theme is the European Flag which the Council adopted as an EU symbol 30 years ago. http://www.coin-competition.eu Problem for the designers was that the Stars of Europe from the flag are on the ring of each euro coin anyway. Considering that, the five "finalists" are not all that bad. You can get an enlarged view of each design via mouseover, or view/download each design by using your browser's context menu. Christian
My current favorite (well, in the sense of "not too bad") is this one ... ... primarily because it appears to be dynamic, and even conveys some joy. What I do not like is the mere "2015"; the other designs all say "1985-2015" and thus provide at least a little hint at what the coin is about. The "chain of little people" is a nice idea too, but I have seen similar scenes on euro coins before. My pet peeve, and that of various euro collectors, is the theme, and the multitude. Theme: The flag was first used by the Council of Europe (not an EU body), and in 1985 adopted by the European Union. Multitude: This will be a joint issue, that is, it will come from 19 euro countries - with the same design, and basically just the country name being different. Guess that for me, one piece (preferably from Germany or some other "high volume" issuer) will be sufficient. Christian
Chain of little people... anonymous, faceless, cookie-cutter... I wanted to say worse things than that, but really that design feature's main problem is that it seems a little lacking in originality (understatement of the century). If a First Grade classroom cuts those out from paper to convey a sense of togetherness in their classroom they can be forgiven. But put on a coin by a national mint from Europe...? I know some of us have some have some pretty strong opinions on coin design (it must be obvious that I do, too), so I won't say much more about how much I really do NOT like "balloons and happy thoughts" coin designs. However, joy is good. Like the dancing couple, if the design is rendered well enough, and makes you think, "I want to be there"... That shows potential, for my liking. Again, each to his own. When it comes to contemporary aesthetics, I know that I'm not really "with-it", but whatever happened to coin designs like this (below)? Okay, this is an extreme example, perhaps!:
A beautiful design - for a coin issued 100 years ago. I may well admire churches or palaces that are several centuries old, but that is not what I would expect from contemporary architecture. Same thing with coins. Not that I like any of the five European Flag finalists a lot (and the theme, oh well) but basically I think that coins and other objects designed these days should not simply look like copies of ancient pieces ... Christian
The vote is over, "more than 100,000" participated. Not all that many, maybe because quite a few citizens/residents figured that neither the occasion nor the "candidate" designs were particularly appealing. Anyway, this is the winner, designed by George Stamatopoulos. The coins will be issued some time in the second half of this year. Every euro area member state uses the design, with the country name/code added. Guess that will be something between "BE" for Belgium and "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" for Germany. Luxembourg is likely to also squeeze the portrait of the Grand Duke in. Christian
