A new €2 commemorative coin has been made available to mark the issuing of euro coins and banknotes ten years ago.
The coin is being issued in all euro zone countries and bears the same design on one side.
A maximum of three million coins will be issued by the Central Bank, and these will have legal tender status throughout the euro area.
The new coin is the third €2 commemorative coin to be issued by the Central Bank. The first was issued in 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome and the second in 2009 to celebrate ten years of the economic and monetary union.
The coin was created by Helmut Andexlinger, a professional designer at the Austrian Mint. The new design depicts people, the financial world, trading, industry, the energy sector, and research and development.
The euro is estimated to be used daily by about 332 million Europeans. It was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency on January 1st, 1999, with euro coins and banknotes entering circulation on January 1st 2002.
In mid-2011 there were 14.2 billion banknotes and 95.6 billion coins in circulation, with a total value of €847 billion and €22.8 billion respectively.
In the first half of last year, 295,553 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation. The most "popular" counterfeits are €50 and €20 banknotes.
