Slovenian euro coins were first issued for circulation on 1 January 2007 and a unique feature is designed for each coin. The design of approximately 230 million

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

n euro coins (total value of approximately €80 million) was unveiled on 7 October 2005. The designers were

Miljenko Licul Miljenko Licul (6 August 1946 – 16 March 2009) was a Slovenian graphic designer of Croatian descent.(Slovenian) He was one of the most prominent graphic designers in independent Slovenia. Life and work Licul was born in the Istrian town of V ...

, Maja Licul and Janez Boljka. The Mint of Finland was chosen to mint the coins through an international tender in 2007. Slovenia was the first country to join the

eurozone The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a Monetary union, currency union of 20 Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (Euro sign, €) as their primary currency ...

out of the 10 new member states that joined the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

in 2004, and the first ex-Yugoslav republic to join the eurozone.

Slovenian euro design

The Slovenian euro coins were the first to feature a new common side, with a new map of Europe on the bicoloured and Nordic-gold coins. For images of the common side and a detailed description of the coins, see

euro coins There are eight euro coin denominations, ranging from one cent to two euro (the euro is divided into a hundred cents). The coins first came into use in 2002. They have a common Obverse and reverse, reverse, portraying a map of Europe, but each cou ...

. ¹ Slovenia achieved independence under the zodiac sign of Cancer.

Circulating mintage quantities

The following table shows the mintage quantity for all Slovenian euro coins, per denomination, per year.

Mints

2007:

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

2008:

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

2009–2011:

2012–2013:

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

2014–2018:

Commemorative coins

Slovenia joined the Eurozone on January 1, 2007. In such a short time they have already built a small collection of collectors coins, with face values ranging from 3 to 100 euros. Although they are all legal tender in Slovenia, these coins are not really intended to be used as a means of payment, so they do not circulate widely (the only exception is the 3 euro coins which can be found in circulation although extremely rarely).

Selection process for the national side

The first stage of the selection process started in April 2004, involving preliminary discussions with numismatists, designers and experts. The general public was also invited through the mass media to participate in a public tender concerning proposals of motifs (132 tenderers proposed 699 motifs). A special expert commission (9 different individual experts and members of different institutions, including the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Slovenia) dealt with the proposals and the process. The second stage of selection started when the Government of the Republic of Slovenia confirmed the commission's decision that invitations would be addressed to some prominent designers for the production of designs. The commission invited five well-known Slovene designers. A special jury of reputable Slovene artists, designers, professors and connoisseurs of Slovene cultural heritage was appointed to review and assess the designs submitted for the Slovene euro coins. The commission of the Bank of Slovenia and Ministry of Finance unanimously agreed with the proposed selected designs prepared by Mr Miljenko Licul, along with Ms Maja Licul and Mr Janez Boljka. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia gave their consent and adopted the decision on 28 July 2005 to submit the selected design proposals for the national side of the Slovene euro coins to ECOFIN (Economic and Financial Committee) - Coins Sub-Committee, which acknowledged the compliance of the Slovene design proposals with European legislation on 5 October 2005.

Controversy

The use of the Prince's Stone (, ) on the 2-cent coin caused a minor political stir in the Austrian State of Carinthia. The stone, a fragment of an ancient Roman column from nearby

Virunum Claudium Virunum was a Roman Empire, Roman city in the province of Noricum, on today's Zollfeld in the Austrian State of Carinthia (state), Carinthia. Virunum may also have been the name of the older Celtic-Roman settlement on the hilltop of Magd ...

that was used in the ritual of installing the princes of Carantania and later of the

Duchy of Carinthia The Duchy of Carinthia (; ; ) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies. Car ...

, is kept in a museum in Klagenfurt (Slovene: Celovec), the Carinthian capital, where it is also considered a historical icon of the state. The Carinthian state government (headed by governor Jörg Haider) issued a resolution of protest on 25 October 2005, which was rejected as "not to be taken seriously" by the then Slovenian foreign minister, Dimitrij Rupel. However, there were also objections against its use on the Slovene side. On academic grounds, for instance, Peter Štih, professor of history at the Ljubljana University and member of the Slovene Academy of Sciences, argued that the Prince's Stone cannot be considered a Slovenian but rather a Carinthian historic symbol.

References

External links

The effigies of the new Slovene euro coins
(from the Bank of Slovenia)
Slovene euro coins on the official website of the Slovenian adoption of the euroSlovenia Euro Coin Catalog
{{Euro topics Euro coins by issuing country Currencies of Slovenia

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...