2 Euros Yellow ribbon

The "yellow ribbon" nickname is unofficial but unmistakable: this commemorative was struck while Catalonia's independence crisis was at its sharpest, with nine separatist leaders in pretrial detention and the yellow ribbon adopted by their supporters as a solidarity symbol. The timing was coincidental — the issue commemorates the 50th anniversary of the European Year of Cultural Heritage program — but the optics proved impossible to ignore in the Spanish press.

No design modification was made in response to the controversy. Spain minted and distributed it as planned.