2 Euros 10 Years of EMU

Issued across all eurozone member states simultaneously in 2009, this commemorative marked the tenth anniversary of the euro's introduction as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999 — a distinction worth noting, since euro coins and banknotes didn't enter circulation until 2002. Spain's allocation was struck at the Madrid facility, which had been producing coinage continuously since the reign of Philip II in the sixteenth century. The shared design was coordinated by the European Central Bank, one of the few instances where member mints surrendered creative control entirely to Frankfurt.