10 Euros Frederick II

This issue commemorates the 800th anniversary of the birth of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor — a ruler whose court at Palermo functioned as one of medieval Europe's most sophisticated intellectual centers, drawing Arab, Greek, and Latin scholars simultaneously. His contemporaries called him stupor mundi, "the wonder of the world," and the Church excommunicated him four times. He launched a Crusade while still excommunicate and negotiated Jerusalem back through diplomacy rather than siege, which scandalized virtually everyone.

The copper-nickel variant was the circulation issue; a sterling silver version was struck concurrently for collectors.