2016-02-22 Mon

The tradition of featuring maps of Europe has been followed since a very long time. Today maps represent a reflection of a nation’s borders which are featured on reverse designs of European coins, some highlighting the eurozone, and its respective place in the world.

The 1-, 2-, and 5-cent coins of 1999 show Europe in relation to the rest of the world and were created for all eight denominations. The design used from 1999 to 2007 on the 10-, 20-, and 50-cent coins showed the outline of each of the 15 EU member states. EU member states outside the eurozone were also depicted. The design for the 1999 to 2007 1 Euro and 2 Euro coins shows a more dominant landmass, though with visible borders. In 2007 the maps reflected the expansion of the European Union. The map of the 15 states on the 10-, 20- and 50-cent coins was replaced by one showing the whole of Europe as a continent, without borders, to stress unity. Slight modifications in positioning and coordinates were required to fit the maps on these coins.

Italy’s 1997 ringed-bimetallic 1,000-lira coin is famous for celebrating the original 12 members of the European Union. The reverse of the coin carries a map of the European Union with a bungled design where Germany as still divided between East and West Germany, even though unification was achieved in 1990. A somewhat corrected version was released later.

In 2012, to mark the 30th anniversary of a major war with the British to claim ownership of the Falkland Islands, Argentina issued a circulating commemorative 2-peso coin.

The coin’s obverse features a map of Argentina with its territories, including the Malvinas (the Spanish name for the islands), while the reverse shows the islands with partial rings superimposed over them, surrounded by a legend referencing the war.