Description : From 1950, the Council of Europe had been working on the
design of a flag for Europe. The proposal to adopt the emblem of the Paneuropa Union, founded by Richard Coudenhove‐Kalergi
in 1922, was rejected because of its supposed Christian symbolism. In 1955 it was agreed that the European flag, also
adopted by the European Community on 29th of June 1985, would be the European flag with the twelve (a number of twelve is
considered a sign of perfection) golden stars in a circular (symbolising unity) arrangement on a blue background. To mark
the 30th anniversary of the EU flag, all 19 EU countries which use the euro as their official currency issued a
commemorative €2 coin. There were five designs to choose from which could be voted for online. The
result was declared on 28th of May 2015. The coin design was created by Georgios Stamatopoulos, coin designer at the
Bank of Greece, whose initials "ΓΣ" can be seen in the lower right‐hand corner. It shows twelve stylised
persons in a circle around a European flag with the twelve euro stars.
National characteristics : Above is the name of the issuing country "PORTUGAL", followed by the dates "1985‐2015".
On the right is "INCM" the mint mark of the Portuguese mint Imprensa Nacional‐ Casa da Moeda S.A. in
Lisbon. |
