2 Euros 10 Years of EMU

All eurozone members were required to issue a commemorative 2 euro coin in 2009 marking the tenth anniversary of Economic and Monetary Union and the introduction of the euro as a book-entry currency — one of the few instances where a common reverse design was mandated across the entire zone simultaneously. Greece joined EMU at the start of 2001, two years after the January 1999 launch, having initially failed to meet the Maastricht convergence criteria on inflation and deficit thresholds.