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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;James O&#039;Brien, post: 1920906, member: 70800&quot;]The replies are quite interesting but do not tell the full story.&nbsp; For example, FOUR non-EU countries use the Euro currency and THREE of them issue their own Euro coins (but no banknotes).&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>All four of these countries were tied to pre-Euro currencies, so they had to be accomodated when the new Euro currency came in and their old &#039;parent&#039; currencies disappeared.</p><p><br /></p><p>Andorra does not issue its own Euro coins but may do so in the near future.</p><p>San Marino and Vatican City issues their own Euro coins but neither circulate them, as these coins are all sold via their respective Numismatic Desks at their central banks to collectors.&nbsp; Most are now sold as BU sets in special sealed folders.&nbsp; Vatican City sold some as &#039;starter packs&#039; in 2002 and San Marino also sell some of their coins in &#039;mint rolls&#039; to collectors.&nbsp; Monaco sells BU sets but some coins do circulate in Monaco, although most are snapped up by eager numismatic tourists - especially the €1 and €2 coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of the other countries, all circulate ALL of their coins - except Finland, who never issued them to banks for circulation (although some mint rolls are available for the 1c and 2c coins.&nbsp; Luxembourg DO circulate their coins and they are easily collected in your pocket change here in Ireland.&nbsp; Recently, smaller denomination Dutch coins are a problem, but only if you collect all coins for all years.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is a rather sneaky ploy by Belgium who only circulate 5 of 8 coins each year - and the circulating coins vary from year to year.&nbsp; The other three coins are only available via their Central Bank in BU sets. </p><p><br /></p><p>On top of the &#039;normal&#039; coins, there is an additional issue of special €2 commemorative coins but not all Euro Zone countries issue these every year.&nbsp; These coins DO circulate and they are very collectible.&nbsp; They would be similar to the US state quarters insofar as they are issued for circulation.&nbsp; Some issues from some countries are scarcer than others.</p><p><br /></p><p>A word of warning to trans-Atlantic collectors - just because a country has a smalll population, do not be lured into thinking that it has a correspondingly small number of coins issued.&nbsp; The coins issued relate to the GDP and the value of the national economy, so a small country like Luxembourg (with a very high GDP) has a large amount of currency in circulation.&nbsp; Interestingly, but not neccessarily for this coin forum, it doesn&#039;t seem to issue its own banknotes.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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