50 Euro Cents 1st map

Ireland was among the eurozone's founding members on January 1, 2002, retiring the punt after 79 years — a currency that had itself only broken from sterling parity in 1979. The "1st map" designation refers to the reverse design used across all eurozone issues before 2007, which depicted only the fifteen EU member states and excluded accession countries. When Bulgaria, Romania, and others joined the EU, a revised map design was introduced across the zone, rendering this type obsolete and giving the series its retrospective "1st map" label.