And quite poor (though fun, hehe). The current designs of the common sides were agreed upon by the Council. A single member state could not modify them, so we are unlikely to see country specific elements on that side. (That is what the, surprise, country specific side is for ...) So the common side of a "Turkish euro" would not have a crescent/star symbol, and you would not find the word "Türkiye" on it. Also, the English/French word "Europe" would certainly not be there. The "map" is odd too; it shows the 15 countries that the EU consisted of before May-2004, plus Turkey. As for the country specific sides, well, Atatürk is likely :-/ Don't know about the Blue Mosque, but as you wrote before döner kebap will not be on a Turkish coin ... So yes, these patterns give an impression of what Turkish euros could one day look like. Except that they would look completely different. Christian
If you think Atatürk is ubiquitous on the money, go to Turkey some time. It's as bad as the old Soviet Union. At least the reverse of Turkish notes celebrates other things in Turkey. For example, the old 20,000,000 lirasi note had ancient Ephesus on it. The Soviets never did that.
Okay, here's the list for new euro countries and major circualation changes: Vatican: Sede Vacente coins 2005-full set. Andorra: 2006 Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia: 2007 some of the rest: 2008-10
Oh, I forgot: Monaco: New 1 and 2 euros with Prince Albert II: 2006 Vatican: The next Pope: 2006 full set.
The private Turkish Euro pattern coins are now listed in the new edition of Krause's Unusual World Coins Catalogue. Aidan.
Don't be too sure. When we were in Estonia last month one of our tour guides told us that nearly 1/3 of the population voted against joining the Union, and even more oppose adoption of the Euro for "patriotic" reasons involving the very short time that the country has had its independence and currency. She told us there is a strong movement to join England as a non-Euro member of the Union. BTW - Estonia, Russia and Lithuania were the toughest of the eight countries we visted in which to obtain coins. At least in Russia we could buy sets in the souvenir shops, but in Tallin two banks refused to sell us any change, and the Beautiful Bride, the Mother of Half my Grandchildren, and I were only able to accumulate a total of six coins in change! (We got seven in Klaepeda, Lithuania.)
May well be so; what Estonia or the UK do is basically up to them. Currently, however, the Estonian kroon, the Slovenian tolar and a few other currencies are part of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-II), unlike the £. Also, last week the Estonian government published its currency transition schedule. According to that plan, * prices have to be in both euro and krooni for one year as from 1 July 2006; * the euro cash becomes legal tender in Estonia on 1 January 2007, followed by a "dual" euro/kroon phase of two weeks only; * between mid-January and late June 2007, kroon cash can be exchanged free of charge at commercial banks (after that period, the central bank only provides that free service). Now of course nobody knows for sure at this time whether that schedule can/will be strictly followed. Formally, Denmark and the UK are the only EU member states that had/have an "opt out" clause. But the Swedish example shows that even without such an option you can stay out ... Christian
