Hobbyist <adam_swansbury@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> As a boy I used to like their 25c (?) ****traying the head of a miner.
> You can be boring without being the euro, though, as the Swiss coins
> arguably demonstrate.
Yes, Belgium had the miner on its 20 c (in the 1950s/60s) and 50 c coins
(roughly between 1950 and 2000), except that in the last franc/frank
years the latter coin had pretty much the same value and purpose as a
British 1p coin.
And the Swiss do indeed not modify their coin designs a lot. But I guess
they are proud of this continued tradition ...
> As for the "Ich dien" motto on the current 2p coin (why isn't it "Ich
> diene", anyway, since it's written rather than spoken?), a Welsh
> acquaintance, whose first language is Welsh, tells me that if you
actually
> say "Ich dien", it sounds just like the Welsh for "my arse".
Uh-oh. :) As for why it's not "diene", I can only guess - since the
motto is several centuries old, it most probably predates modern
standardized German spelling. Was interesting to see a pretty large
version of that motto on one of this year's commemorative £5 coins.
> However, I much preferred the greater stylistic variety that existed
> pre-euro and was destroyed by the birth of the euro. The Irish pre-euro
> set is the one I mourn most.
True, if a currency union is set up, you lose some of the variety that
existed before. It would be very difficult to use the same cash anywhere
in the "union area" and at the same time have a great variety of
denominations, sizes, compositions, and so on. I find the Irish animals
series on their pre-euro coins quite attractive, and have always
wondered why they did not continue that. It would have been easy to
combine a small harp and some "main design" on the same side. But it
seems they did not want to do that.
> Probably the German coins benefited by going euro, as the pre-euro set
> was undistinguished and didn't cohere stylistically. It didn't LOOK
> like a set, so it needed a design shake-up.
Well, the four smallest denominations (1-10 Pf) even had the very same
design. But yes, the other four were all "single" designs. In one case,
the £2 piece, that also applies to the new British coins. But the others
are coherent indeed without being boring. And maybe the £2 coin will
primarily be used for commemorative issues ...
Christian
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