2 interesting Euro coins found today

[expat]

Cashing up tonight I discovered two little seen coins in our shop cash register. The first is a 1 Euro coin from Andorra, a tiny principality within the Spanish area near Barcelona.

Mints: In even years, the coins were minted in Madrid (Spain), in odd years in Pessac (France)

Casa de la Vall is a historical house in Andorra la Vella, Andorra. It is the headquarters of the General Council of Andorra. It lies just to the southwest of the Andorra National Library. It is a heritage property registered in the Cultural Heritage of Andorra. It was built in 1580 as a manor and tower defense by the Busquets family. In 1702 it was acquired by the "Consell de la Terra".

The second coin is from Italy and features a reference to Europa and the bull from ancient mythology.

The center of the coin features Europa and the bull, with Europa holding a pen signing the text of the European Constitution and the mintmark to the upper-left with the initials of the engraver to the lower-left. The date is in the top-right above the head of the bull and the monogram of the Italian Republic slightly off-center at the bottom with the words "COSTITUZIONE EUROPEA" forming a semicircle underneath the central image, with the twelve five-pointed stars around the outer ring representing the European Union.

[Qcumbor]

Nice finds.

The last non-french of some interest I found in my change was an owl like the one below 

Q

[JayAg47]

I can never unsee how Finland and Sweden look on these Euro coins! 

[Qcumbor]

6 hours ago, JayAg47 said:

I can never unsee how Finland and Sweden look on these Euro coins! 

Especially on the early types with the first map 😀

Q

[Furryfrog02]

Nice! When I spent a month in Germany, I tried collecting as many different 1 and 2 Euro coins as I could. I ended up with a pretty nice collection. Andorra though, never seen one of those.

[lordmarcovan]

Pocket change in the Euro zone must be infinitely more interesting than it is here in the USA, though we do have a good variety of designs in our quarters.

[JeandAcre]

...Now I need to find pics of the Finland and Sweden coins online.  I'm not really getting the joke yet!

Those initial ones are both especially cool, @expat.  But the one from Italy is truly, sit-up-in-your-chair remarkable.  ...I wish I could find the thread, started by or conspicuously involving @DonnaML (with her varied and otherwise impressive British collection), which descended into a pile-on for the Royal Mint, trashing coins from the Churchill crowns to contemporary ones, including (ugh) the lacquered variety.  By contrast, the Italian one here resonantly renews my faith in European coin design.

(Edit:)  Oh.  Now I get it.  😷

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by JeandAcre

[Ursus]

17 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

(Edit:)  Oh.  Now I get it.  😷

Rumor has it that the "anatomical" look of the two Scandinavian countries on the early euro coins was a major reason for introducing the new design that now includes Norway despite it not being a EU member state.

(Also, a Finnish friend once told me that it gave rise to a popular joke in his home country: stating that "the Swedes are d***s but we've got balls" and pointing at a piece of change to prove the point.)

Edited November 17, 2023 by Ursus

[expat]

Here is a 2Euro coin from Lithuania with a great design.

[JeandAcre]

Wow.  That's fantastic.  Evoking the issues of Poland-Lithuania at least as far back (--?) as the the 18th century. 

[Ursus]

16 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

at least as far back (--?) as the the 18th century.

Even further back, see, for example, the shield on the reverse of this coin:

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sigismund III Vasa, AR Ort (¼ Taler), 1622 AD, Bromberg mint. Obv: SIGIS • III • D • G • REX • POL • M • D • LI • RVS • PRV • M; bust of Sigismund III, crowned, with ruff and in ornamented cuirass, holding sword and orb. Rev: SAM • LIV • NEC • N • SV • GOT • VAN : Q : HRI : R; crowned and quartered shield with eagles (Poland) and rider (Lithuania), central inescutcheon with Vasa withy; in fields, 16-22; mint sign: arrow and stars. 29mm, 6.83g. Ref: Kopicki 1278.

[JeandAcre]

Thanks, @Ursus.  I was ready to guess that, but figured someone out there actually knew!

(Edit:) Wait!  Was this guy any relation to Gustavus Vasa?  I know zero about the dynastic (or other) history of this part of the world; a copper issue just happened to be one of the first 18th-century coins I ever had, as a kid.  --Now I've got to Wiki this!

Terrific coin, btw.  Seamlessly comparable to contemporary, no less elaborate German ones.

Edited November 18, 2023 by JeandAcre

[JeandAcre]

...Wow.  This is kind of cool.  All of this is from the better-documented sort of Wiki articles.  And, Really, Sorry for highjacking this thread.  Just not enough; it really sparked my interest, and I kind of had to run with it.

Sigismund was the son of a Vasa king of Sweden and the Jagiello heiress of Poland.  Gustavus, his near cousin, was king of Sweden, and a later contemporary (they died the same year).  But they were on opposite sides of the European religious wars, bleeding over (literally) from the 16th well into the 17th century. 

Sigismund, following his maternal and royal inheritance, was a zealous, one could say militant Catholic.  (The heraldic knight is from the kingdom and then duchy of Lithuania, which goes back to the 13th century.) 

Meanwhile, Gustavus, the Protestant Swede, is known for his key role in the 40 Years' War (1618-1648), fought between Catholics and Protestants across much of central Europe.  Sigismund attempted to join the war --right, with his cousin a primary opponent-- but was overruled by the Polish parliament.  

(...You could argue that this was a dress rehearsal for World War I; the main difference being reducible to the level of military technology involved, rather than the scale of devastation, most conspicuously in eastern Germany.  (Think, the Hundred Years' War, essentially a sustained invasion of France.  On the English side, the available technology was more than compensated by the sheer industry with which it was implemented.  Whole towns simultaneously went up in flames.  As a descendant of an earl of Warwick who led large contingents at both Crecy and Poitiers, followed by chevauchees with John of Gaunt, it's like, Sorry, France.)  J. S. Bach is known for spending his younger years living with the remaining damage in Thuringia, a couple of generations after the end of the war.) 

In his military capacities, Gustavus strikes me as an earlier parallel of Oliver Cromwell, the Puritan general and Lord Protector during and after the English Civil War, in the middle of the same century.  Both were brilliantly innovative tacticians on the battlefield; both condoned (At Least) pillaging and destruction on levels which would now be considered war crimes.  For two conspicuous examples, Gustavus in Germany (cf. above); and Cromwell's campaign to expand English rule in (thank you, Catholic) Ireland. 

...This needs a rest.  Maybe you do too, if you made it this far.  Signing off.

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by JeandAcre