Estonia Euro Coins

Estonia and the other nine states that joined the EU in 2004 have committed to adopting the euro. Of the ten new member states, Estonia was the first to unveil its design. It originally planned to adopt the euro on 1 January 2007; however, it did not formally apply when Slovenia did, and officially changed its target date to 1 January 2008, and later, to 1 January 2011.

On 12 May 2010 the European Commission informed that Estonia had met all criteria to join the eurozone. On 8 June 2010, the EU finance ministers decided in Luxembourg that Estonia will join the euro on 1 January 2011. On 13 July 2010, Estonia received the final approval from the ECOFIN to adopt the euro as from 1 January 2011. On the same date the exchange rate at which kroon will be exchanged to euro was also announced. On the 20 July 2010, the mass production of the Estonian euro coins started at the mint of Finland. Estonia will become the first ex-Soviet republic to join the Eurozone.

A competition was announced on June 2004 for the design of the national side of the Estonian euro coin. 134 designs were submitted by the deadline of 19 October. A jury of experts selected 10 best designs, which then participated in one-week telephone voting, open to all Estonians. The designs drew a total of 45.453 votes and according to the terms of the competition, the authors of the ten best designs selected by the Panel were paid remuneration in the amount of EEK 20,000 (€ 1,278). The award for the winning design was EEK 50,000 (€ 3,196).

No#	Series - Proposed Images
1	Jarjepidevus
2	Linnutee
3	Leopardid-2
4	Hara 2
5	261948
6	Lill rukkis
7	Eesti keel
8	Tomson5791
9	Nova
10	In corpore

PLACE	DESIGN (AUTHOR)	VOTES	% OF VOTES
	TOTAL	45,453	100.00%
1.	Nr 4 - Hara 2 (Lembit Lohmus)	12,482	27.46%
2.	Nr 1 - Jarjepidevus (Tiit J?rna)	7,477	16.45%
3.	Nr 10 - In Corpore (Jaan Meristo)	7,284	16.03%
4.	Nr 8 - Tomson 5791 (Taavi Torim)	6,219	13.68%
5.	Nr 7 - Eesti keel (Jaak Peep, Villem Valme - TANK)	5,997	13.19%
6.	Nr 5 - 261948 (Villu Jarmut, Mai Jarmut)	3,036	6.68%
7.	Nr 2 - Linnutee (Tiit J?rna)	1,323	2.91%
8.	Nr 3 - Leopardid-2 (Jaano Ester)	759	1.67%
9.	Nr 9 - Nova (Rene Haljasmae)	498	1.10%
10.	Nr 6 - Lill rukkis (Margus Kadarik)	378	0.83%

The public voted for the idea proposed by Lembit Luhmus to decorate the Estonian Euros with the shape of the country together with the name of the country (Eesti) and some twelve starts as symbol of the European Union. Thus, Estonian Euro coins, contrary to many other EU countries feature the same design for all the euro coins, without making any distinction between their nominal amounts. The decision raised a great criticism during 2010 as many people started to protest against it, asking to change the initial idea and follow EU Member States on assigning different symbols to different coins. While some people proposed to – at least – insert in one Estonia euro coin the three lions, also a well known symbol of the country, public authorities together with the Bank of Estonia decided not to get back on the issue.