Andorra issues €2 coin for European anniversary

By Jeff Starck

Published: Mar 31, 2016, 4 AM

Andorra’s first circulating commemorative €2 coin of 2016 celebrates an anniversary that occurred in 2014, the nation’s 20 years of membership in the Council of Europe.

Coin images courtesy of the European Commission.

Andorra’s first circulating commemorative €2 coin of 2016 celebrates an event that happened in 2014.

The coin, which was released in February, celebrates the nation’s 20 years of membership in the Council of Europe, a milestone reached on Nov. 10, 2014.

The Council of Europe, founded in 1949, is a regional intergovernmental organization whose stated goal is to promote human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in its 47 member states, covering 820 million citizens.

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The obverse of the coin shows the coat of arms of Andorra followed by the inscription 20 where the zero is stylized to represent the Council of Europe’s flag. At the top are the inscriptions ANDORRA and underneath AL CONSELL D’EUROPA. The year 2014 appears at the bottom left followed by an oblique line.

A total of 100,000 coins were released, according to an announcement in the Official Journal of the European Commission.

The ringed-bimetallic coin has a copper-nickel core and copper-aluminum-nickel ring.

The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag. The common reverse shows a map of the European Union.

The €2 coin weighs 8.5 grams and measures 25.75 millimeters in diameter.

Each nation is allowed to issue up to two different circulating commemorative designs annually, with designs of their choosing, though few nations issue the maximum number of designs.

Joint Euro programs like the 2015 coins honoring the 30th anniversary of flag of the European Union do not count toward this limit.