2 Euros - Beatrix Erasmus - Pattern

This is a pattern piece — never issued for circulation — produced by the Royal Dutch Mint to mark the 2011 Erasmus commemorative program. The Dutch mint has a long tradition of striking unofficial patterns and essais for internal review and collector interest, and pieces like this rarely enter public hands through official channels. Erasmus of Rotterdam spent much of his productive life outside the Netherlands, yet the Dutch have claimed him fiercely since the nineteenth century as a national intellectual symbol.