Coin-cidence?
May 28, 2015
Greek central bank engraver George Stamatopoulos on Thursday won a competition to design the logo of a commemorative two-euro coin.
His proposal had been preselected by a jury alongside designs from Spain, Slovenia, Italy and Cyprus.
Marking the 30th anniversary of the EU flag, Stamatopoulos' entry depicts 12 people forming a human chain around that flag with the 12 gold stars on a blue background.
The design was chosen by 30 percent of 100,000 voters in an online competition by the European Commission.
Its Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said the coin celebrated a key moment of the adoption of the flag as the EU's official emblem.
Win-lose situation?
"I welcome the winning design by the Bank of Greece and the participation of tens of thousands of Europeans in its selection," Dombrovskis said in a statement.
About 75 million of the two-euro coins will circulate in eurozone nations, starting in July. But as Greece's new hard-left government keeps struggling to get another shot in the arm from its creditors, fears are growing the country may eventually drop out of the euro area.
The new two-euro coin would then become commemorative in one more way, economists quipped.
hg/sri (AFP, Reuters)