Luxembourg Euro Coins

The smallest member of the EU was one of the EEC's six founding nations in 1957. Luxembourg has provided two of the European Commission's nine presidents, Gaston Thorn and Jacques Santer. The Grand Duchy is also known for its pro-European loyalty and a former Luxembourg prime minister, Pierre Werner, was one of the intellectual fathers of European monetary union. The country's government had been a major player in ensuring the swift introduction of the euro. Interestingly, in order to join the euro, Luxembourg had to set up its own central bank. The euro was a project well suited to Luxembourg's traditions as it has been part of a monetary union with Belgium since the 1920s. Luxembourg is the first member of the Eurozone to have all of their standard issue circulation coins minted in more than one location and the only member to have had all their coins minted at three different locations. Please take a look at The Luxembourg National Mint.

Luxembourg euro coins feature three different designs, though they all contain the portrait or effigy of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg. The Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg appears on the coins facing to the left. He was not featured on the Luxembourgish franc as he only became Grand Duke in 2000 following the abdication of his father, Jean. Jean's portrait on the francs showed him facing to the right and it is common in a number of countries for successive monarchs to alternate the direction they faced on coins. Other euro coins issued by member states which are monarchies show their monarchs facing to the left, in common with the effigy on their legacy currencies. The designs, by Yvette Gastauer-Claire, also contain the 12 stars of the EU flag, the year of imprint and the name of the country in the Luxembourgish language: Letzebuerg.

The Luxembourgish 2 euro coin edge inscription

Edge
The sequence "2 * *" repeated six times alternately upright and inverted

Mintmarks on Luxembourgish euro coins

Luxembourg does not mint its own coins. Coin production began at the Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt, in Utrecht, Netherlands, in June, 2000, but had the date stamp of 2002. As a result, even though the coins are dated 2002, they bear the mintmaster's mark of Erik J. van Schouwenburg, the temporary director of the mint in 2000. The coinage act of Luxembourg stipulates that national coins can not have a date stamp prior to the year of issue. Therefore, Luxembourg euro coins bear the mint master mark of the temporary director at the time of minting, despite the date on the coins.

Year	Designer	Mint	Director
2002	YGC Yvette Gastauer-Claire	The Royal Dutch Mint, a Mercury's Staff	Bow and arrow rerpesenting the director Erik J. van Schouwenburg
2003, 2004			Sailboat representing the director Maarten Brouwer
2005, 2006		'S' The logo of the Rahapaja Oy mint and the letter S for Suomi (Finland)
2007, 2008		The Mint of Paris, a Cornucopia	Hunting horn, a wave and a fish, representing the director Hubert Lariviere
2009 - 2015		The Royal Dutch Mint, a Mercury's Staff	Sailboat representing the director Maarten Brouwer
2016			Sailboat rerpesenting the director Kees Bruinsma

[1] - The star indicates a temporary director