5 Euro Cents

Cyprus adopted the euro on 1 January 2008 after a prolonged peg of the Cypriot pound to the euro at a fixed rate of 0.585274 pounds per euro — a rate locked in 2007 and never adjusted. The transition effectively ended a currency that had survived British colonial administration, independence in 1960, and the economic disruption of the 1974 Turkish invasion of the north.

Copper plated steel replaced the bronze alloy used in earlier euro cent issues from other member states, a cost-driven shift the European Central Bank authorised as rising copper prices made the original specification increasingly uneconomical.