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Message:: [QUOTE="chrisild, post: 1240964, member: 39"]Here you see quite nicely the "extremes" when it comes to design variety. Of the four countries you list here,* the Greek and Italian coins have different obverses for every denomination;* Germany took a middle-of-the-road approach with three different designs (after all, there are three different common reverses too);* and the Irish preferred a design that is exactly the same for all eight denominations.Unfortunately (from my point of view) Austria, Greece, Italy and Slovenia, plus San Marino, are the only euro countries with eight different obverse designs. As for the "updated maps" on the common sides, well, the euro coins were designed when the European Union had 15 member states. So the maps (except the one on the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins which show "Europe in the world") show these fifteen countries. However, in 2004 ten more countries joined the EU, and two others followed in 2007. As a consequence, the Nordic Gold (10, 20, 50 cent) and bimetallic (€1, €2) coins got updated maps in 2007 which do not show the EU but - just like the euro notes - geographical Europe regardless of whether a country is in the EU or not. But the older type stays in circulation, and since so many of that first type were minted, it is not exactly common to find a coin with a "new" map in circulation in the "older" member states ... Christian[/QUOTE]