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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;chrisild, post: 1804267, member: 39&quot;]Italy started making euro coins in September 1998, and - just like Finland for example - they initially put &quot;1999&quot; (first year of the euro) on those pieces. But yes, some of those were flawed in various ways. Partly because the mint (IPZS) had made mistakes such as the missing signature, and also because the EU specifications for two denominations (10 and 50 cent) were modified, due to requests from the vending industry and vision impaired people, in late February 1999 - at a time when several mints had already started making the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Italian government decided, in June 1999, to be on the safe side and to use 2002 as the first date. The 1999 pieces were mostly melted down, but a few apparently &quot;survived&quot;. Ah well, other mints initially made other mistakes. For example, the stars on the obverse are supposed to be arranged like on the European flag, not &quot;radially&quot;. And yet several German mints apparently made that mistake:</p><p><br /></p><p>Correct orientation: <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/images/image8490.gif" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/images/image8490.gif" rel="nofollow">http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/images/image8490.gif</a></p><p>Error: <a href="http://www.12see.de/userdaten/000150/76/bilder/probe/50_cent_a_1.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.12see.de/userdaten/000150/76/bilder/probe/50_cent_a_1.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.12see.de/userdaten/000150/76/bilder/probe/50_cent_a_1.jpg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Again, most of these error pieces were destroyed immediately once the mistake had been found. But a few made it to dealers and collectors. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Christian[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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