5 Cents Type 2 coat of arms

Cyprus struck this issue through one of the more politically fractured periods in its modern history — the northern third of the island remained under Turkish military occupation throughout the entire production run, a division that persists to this day and that shaped the Central Bank's mandate in ways few small-denomination coins reflect so quietly. The coat of arms type designation distinguishes it from the earlier KM#55.1 and 55.2 variants, which carried a different arms configuration following design revisions tied to the republic's evolving post-1974 official symbolism.

The series was rendered obsolete by Cyprus's accession to the EU in 2004 and the subsequent path toward euro adoption, finalized in 2008.