Greece Euro Coins
The poorest member of the EU, Greece saw EMU as an essential step towards
achieving its strategic and economic ambitions. In spite of the
euro's weakness when Greece
entered the Eurozone on January 1 2001, opinion polls showed that some 70 per cent of
Greeks were in favour of membership. There was little attachment to the
drachma, as europe's second-oldest currency was linked in Greek minds
with economic and political backwardness. Greece leveraged the euro to encourage foreign direct investment with a
view to the country becoming a business and transport hub, linking south-east Europe with EU markets.
Greek euro coins feature a unique design for every one of the eight coins and they were all designed by Georgios
Stamatopoulos.
- The minor coins depict Greek ships
- The middle coins portray famous Greeks
- The two large denominations show images of Greek history and mythology
All designs feature the 12 stars of the EU, the year of imprint and a tiny symbol of the Bank of Greece
(the anthemion flower). Uniquely, the value of the coins is expressed on the national side in the Greek
alphabet, as well as being on the common side in the Roman alphabet. The euro cent is known as the lepto (plural lepta)
in Greek, in reference to the former currency, the drachma, which was divided into 100 lepta.
The Greek 2 euro coin edge inscription
| Edge |
|---|
| Type A |  |
| Type B |  |
| |
| Hellenic Republic - Due to the process of inscribing the edge, two "types" occur |
Mintmarks on Greek euro coins
| 2 Euro |
1 Euro |
10, 20, 50 Cents |
1, 2, 5 Cents |
 S - Suomi (Finland) |
 S - Suomi (Finland) |
 E - España |
 F - France |
Greece did not enter the Eurozone until 2001 and was not able to start minting coins as early as the other
eleven member states, so a number of coins circulated in 2002 were not minted in Athens but in Finland (€1
and €2 - mint mark S = Suomi), France (1c, 2c, 5c, 10c and 50c - mint mark F) and Spain (20c - mint mark E
= España). The coins minted in Athens for the Euro introduction in 2002 as well as all the subsequent Greek euro
coins do not carry any mint mark. Please take a look at The Greek national Mint.