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Guest blogger: Central Archives of the Council of the European Union
When designing the single currency, the euro had the complex challenge of representing all Europeans, yet not being devoid of ‘personality’. The design was, therefore, a fundamental factor in raising public acceptance. This final post in the Council Archives series on the origins of the euro explores how the decisions on the design of euro coins, particularly the common side, were taken.
At the European Council in Madrid in December 1995, the 15 member states agreed on the name of the new currency – the ‘euro’ – but some still had doubts about public acceptance of the new European currency. Replacing the old national currencies was a process that could meet with reticence.
The design of the future coins was to be addressed at an informal Ecofin meeting in Verona of 12 and 13 April 1996, which resulted in concrete decisions being taken on the design of the new euro coins. A note to the Secretary-General of the Council, Mr Jürgen Trumpf, on the preparation of the Verona meeting, gives a good insight into the expectations:
’This discussion is not of crucial importance but may turn out to be time-consuming.’
The design of the euro coins was certainly not the most important topic for economic and monetary integration, but it was a sensitive one. States would be giving up a national symbol found in the pocket of every citizen, in favour of a common future.
Five main topics regarding the design of the coins were to be discussed in Verona, prior to launching a competition for selecting the final design:
- discussion of the idea of launching two main themes for the competition, ‘architectural and ornamental styles’, proposed by the member states’ mint masters, and ‘aims and ideals of the European Union’, proposed by the Monetary Committee, with a third theme, ‘European personalities’, proposed by Germany
- the choice between a coin with two common faces, and a coin with a common reverse side and an obverse side specific to each member state
- the name of the subunit of the euro
- the utilisation of the Greek alphabet on the euro coins
- finally, the materials to be used and the use of nickel; there was an issue with this due to the allergies caused by this material and legislation in Sweden restricting its use.
Handwritten notes from the meeting indicate that a high level of consensus was reached on most of the questions:
- regarding the main subjects for the contest, the German proposal did not meet with much success, despite being supported by France; it was, however, included later in the competition
- it was decided that the new euro coins would have a common face and a national one. This was agreed by most of the participants, but the Spanish and Belgian delegations raised the fact that the coins would need to be repatriated back to the country where they were minted (finally it was decided that this would not be necessary)
- the subunit of the euro would be called the ‘cent’.
Yet, despite these successes, not every topic could be agreed. The issue of the materials created tensions between the Swedish minister and other European delegations, who were of the opinion that the new European coins could not have a lower quality than that of the national currencies. However, the biggest tension arose from the demands of the Greek minister that the Greek alphabet be on all coins; his counterparts asserted that, since there would be a national side, there was no need to use both the Latin and Greek alphabets. But those issues would end up being discussed in detail at a later stage; for now, another long journey began, the road to reach consensus on the common side of the coins.
The decision taken in Verona regarding the two faces of the coins was confirmed at the June 1996 European Council in Florence. Subsequently, a competition for the design of the common side of the new currency was launched by the European Commission.
The competition had two main phases: firstly, a selection at national level in which every member state would submit three complete sets of coins to the European authorities, and secondly, a final selection by an all-Europe jury.
The series presented by the artists had to follow one of the three themes proposed in Verona: ‘ornamental and architectural styles’, ‘ideals of the EU’ and ‘European personalities’. They also had to include the value and the name ‘euro’.
On 13 March 1997, a meeting took place of the European judging panel composed of independent experts. All member states (except Denmark, which was not participating in the competition) would submit a shortlist of nominated specialists and the Commission would select one from each participating member state. The meeting was chaired by David Williamson, Secretary-General of the European Commission.
Creators from all over Europe presented up to 36 different models for the new currency, although not all themes were represented evenly. In particular, there were very few series for ‘European personalities’. The jury was therefore obliged to modify the selection conditions. Ideally, they would have chosen the best three series under the three main themes, but the fact that the models were unevenly distributed forced the jury to choose the best nine series, regardless of the theme.
The jury made their choice following a series of criteria:
- creativity
- aesthetics
- functionality
- likely public perception and acceptability.
Nevertheless, they also considered it desirable for the coins to include symbolism easily understood by the public and have some artistic merit.
Nine designs were chosen that day, followed by days of public polling among representatives of consumer associations, people with visual impairments, and professionals from all over Europe. Months later, at the Ecofin meeting of 9 June 1997, finance ministers evaluated the chosen models with a view to announcing the final choice during the Amsterdam European Council of 16 and 17 June.
The jury chose the work of a Belgian artist Luc Luycx, designer at the Royal Mint of Belgium. This series - polling 63.8% - was also the public choice.
Luycx’s design aimed to be 'clear and easy to use, understandable for all and defining the euro as the currency of Europe and Europeans’. In this it succeeded, because today the work of the Belgian designer is carried in the pockets of millions across the EU.
With this decision, the common face of the euro became a reality. This step brought the new European Currency closer to the people for its introduction on 1 January 2002.
This is the final post in a series by the Archives of the Council of the European Union on the origins of the euro. The first three entries can be accessed below.
This post does not necessarily represent the positions, policies, or opinions of the Council of the European Union or the European Council.
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