For those interested. The Netherlands have issued their first national 2 Euro commemorative circulation coin. The Netherlands have laws stating their head of state (their present Queen) need be on circulation coins (value on one side, queen on the other. That's the idea) As a result they were unable to issue 2 Euro commemoratives, because a Euro piece has one side that always has to be identical Eurozone wide (contains the denomination), a free side which in case of Holland contains an image of their queen and, ............. well, that would leave the edge to depict the topic of celebration They do seem to have altered the law a bit, because as of 2007 they have issued two 2 Euro pieces celebrating EU themes (there are 2 Euro pieces commemorating EU events). Now they have come up with their first national commemorative. I was curious how they would solve the dilemma. Personally, I find the most elegant solution would have been not participating in this 2 Euro "business" at all. I really liked the Dutch abstinence as to simply NOT issuing 2 Euro commemoratives for every happy occasion. I wonder how long it will be kept up to "swamp" the market with these coins (no offense meant to anyone liking them!). I just suspect that in 50 years time these will have become such a nuisance to shop keepers (who will not be able to quickly distinguish between official coins and fakes with topics like "Bart Simpson, 25th Royal Anniversary as King of Bavaria" etc.) that they will refuse half of them. But we'll see. In any case we'll see the first Dutch one. They came with a solution that is, in my opinion, both positive and negative: the queen stays. Both an image of the queen and the celebrated topic will have to be combined somehow. Very much like Luxemburg commemoratives. Good: it's elegant to NOT adjust your laws and national tradition for something as trival as a 2 Euro commemorative (mostly horrible designs anyway ). One has a queen or not and if one has she should be proudly all over one's coins. Bad: this leaves little space for a commemorative design. If one cannot freely design but has to squeeze everything in, then why participating in such issues? But enough ranting . Here it is. It commemorates the first edition of Erasmus' very famous book Laus Stultitiae (Praise of Folly). The image of Erasmus is based on a painting featuring Erasmus. There will 4.000.000 circulation coins, 10.000 BU coin cards and in 7000 proof coins. The design is by Dylan Shields (an art student at Northumbria Academy).
You will know that every euro area member state is limited to one €2 commem per year (or two if there is a common issue too). So don't expect too many ... By the way, in case anybody wonders why a Northumbria Academy student would design a Dutch Erasmus coin: "Dylan Shields, a final year BA (Hons) Fine Art student, was asked to enter his design for Holland's commemorative coin after visiting the country as part of an Erasmus exchange." http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/sass/events/sassnews/eurocoin Personally I like the idea of €2 commems, and fortunately most euro countries issue them. What I do find annoying is that a designer is limited to the "pill" of such a coin. That makes the usable area even smaller. Yes, the Stars of Europe should be on our money. However, we already have them on the common sides of the bimetallic coins. Issues such as the Architectuur Vijfje or the recent Waterland Vijfje (or the Austrian silver-niobium pieces), with innovative designs and materials, would not be possible if we did not have those regional collector coins. But I am glad that there are also commemorative €2 coins which can be used like the regular issues, and wherever the regular issues are used. Christian
Even with just 1 or 2 per year per Euro member state, I believe that may result into problems in the future (but that assumption may very well be dead wrong). Apart from that I rather see "real" commemoratives instead of coins with limitations (as in: design on the “pill” only on 1 side only). As for the Dutch vijfjes I do not consider their designs innovative (sometimes I wonder why I collect them at all; to keep the collection complete, I guess). From a technical perspective yes, but as far as their designs are concerned, no. Most important to me seems variation in art and in that respect I think there is an issue with Dutch commemoratives no matter how innovative they may be. Ever since the first Beatrix coins designs have been mainly abstract (and in my opinion some of them are very poor indeed). Examples: Circulation guilders: Beatrix's head half and stylized, 50 Guilders 1984: Beatrix in horizontal lines, 50 G. 1987: Beatrix in a single line (Btw, if you look on Ebay now for "50 Gulden 1987 Netherlands Niederlande Pattern" you can see a rare alternative 1987 design that was rejected; I wish that one had won instead! 50 G. 1988: Beatrix in crossed lines, 50 G. 1990: Beatrix in more or less vertical lines + heads of queens as "lumpy masses" , 50 G. 1994, 1995, 1998: all stylized. 10 Euro 2002: Stylized portraits. 5 Euro 2003: Beatrix in letters 5 Euro 2004: Beatrix in a few lines 5 Euro 2006 (tax department): some small print (and a coin in a coin so a previous Beatrix design could be simply re-used?) 5 Euro 2008: Basically Beatrix in letters again 5 Euro 2009 (Manhattan): Beatrix design simply re-used (from 10 Euro 2002)? 5 Euro 2009 (Japan): Previous Beatrix design simply re-used. Honestly, I couldn't tell which one I find most disappointing. Was it the 50 G back in 1987 or back in 1994, or the 5 Euro 2007, or perhaps the 5 Euro 2009 (Japan) or the latest waterland-vijfje? None of this is meant offensive in any way! Art is all about taste and what one likes and if one likes abstract art Dutch vijfjes are paradise! A lot of them are also technically very innovative. However, I strongly believe that a country should have a design policy that allows for variety in art. One can forget about that in Holland: based on their history of commemoratives there clearly is a very strong tendency that one could describe as "Dutch design contests end in abstract designs." If an artist would send in something entirely different, a Jugendstil-design just to mention something, he wouldn’t stand a chance no matter how skilful his design.
Agreed, some of these are ho-hum at best. I have some of the gulden collector coins, and so far all of the euro issues. The Australia and Manhattan fivers I like, and the new one (Waterland) ... it is an interesting idea at least. Some others, well, I am not fond of the Rembrandt coin, and the De Ruyter piece I do not like at all. By and large I appreciate the mix of "classic" designs (Koninkrijksstatuut, and maybe Belastingdienst) and "avant-garde" designs. Could be a little more balanced though. The collector coins from Finland, for example, are usually very abstract - the ones from Austria are more traditional, almost over-detailed. The Dutch pieces, as a whole, are in neither of these extreme "camps". (And here in Germany we have our fair share of dull designs. But I digress. ) Christian
