2 Euros Specimen

Lithuania struck euro-denomination coins years before actually joining the eurozone — a quirk of EU accession preparation that required candidate states to produce specimen sets for approval by European authorities. This 2006 issue predates Lithuania's eventual euro adoption by nearly a decade; the country's planned 2007 switchover was blocked when its inflation rate marginally exceeded the Maastricht Treaty threshold, the only candidate rejected on that basis in that accession wave.