2 Euros 10 Years of Euros Cash

Issued to mark the tenth anniversary of euro banknotes and coins entering circulation on 1 January 2002, this Greek commemorative arrives at a particularly bitter moment in the country's financial history. By 2012, Greece was deep into its sovereign debt crisis, operating under troika bailout conditions, and actively negotiating the largest sovereign debt restructuring in history — the PSI haircut that wiped roughly 53% off privately-held Greek debt. A coin celebrating the euro's cash decade, struck by the very central bank whose government had nearly exited the currency, carries an irony that no catalog description can fully absorb.