2016-12-22 Thu

1,000 lives were sacrificed at the Arkadi Monastery during the Cretan Revolt of 1866 against the Ottoman rule. The 150th anniversary of Arkadi Monastery destruction has been honoured on a 2016 circulating ringed-bimetallic commemorative €2 coin.

The monastery provided refuge to 943 Greeks during the uprising. After three days, the Cretans chose to sacrifice their own lives instead of surrendering and blew up the monastery.

The obverse of the coin shows the monastery with its name, the country name in Greek, the date of issue, palmette Mint mark of the Greek Mint and the monogram of the artist George Stamatopoulos.

The reverse depicts the common European map design. The 12 stars of the European flag are featured on both sides. The mintage limit of these 8.5 grams coins is 750,000 pieces.