Common Side




The common or European side of the Euro coins is the side on which the value of the coin is shown.





Thirty-six designs were submitted for the common side of the Euro coins and that of the Belgian designer Luc Luycx was chosen.





His initials LL can be seen on all euro coins at about "4 o'clock" on the common side.

The initial version of the common side showed the then 15 members of the Euro zone as well as Great Britain, Denmark and Sweden.



In 2005 it was decided that this side should be altered to reflect the expanding Euro zone. Initially only those countries in the Euro zone were depicted - the revised version was to depict the whole of Europe.




The change did not effect the one,two and five cent coins that continued to depict the whole earth rather than just Europe.

The new version was to come into effect no later than 2008 and most countries brought about the change in 2007.



If you examine the images you will see that for the 10, 20 and 50 cent coins, the non Euro zone countries that lie between members of the Euro zone are not depicted.








The above images all show the original design - hereunder are enlarged portions of the coins which clearly show the changes.


The original designs are on the left and the new designs are on the right.


First is the 50 cent coin (the changes in the 10 and 20 cent are the same )

Then comes the one Euro followed by the two Euro.





































And that folks is all I can tell you about the common side of the Euro for now. There is however much more to tell with regard to the national sides. See you there!





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