EuroBillTracker

I believe so, yes. I got the 5 euro coins commemorating trade with Japan (2 pieces) from a post office in Maastricht, 2 years ago. Last year I forgot, but I'll go and see next week if the last are still available.
And they're not uncommon in circulation, just not very often.

groentje wrote:Also the Netherlands has some circulation coins of 5 euros, only valid in NL

I'm strongly contrary to this type of coins. We've not waited 40 years for monetary union and then to have circulating coins only valid inside the states

I should probably refrase, the 5 euro coins are only legal tender in the Netherlands, but they may be accepted every where. Chances are, however, that in Spain or Finland these 5-ers won't be recognised, and thus refused. A bit similar to the Scottish and Northern Irish pound notes, that are no legal tender in England (and not even in Scotland and N. Ireland, but that's an other issue), and vice versa, but British notes will most likely be accepted everywhere in Scotland, and every British bank will change the Scottish ones if requested.

I don't particularly like the idea of those regional collector coins either, but let's face it, they are made for collectors - and I am tempted to add an "only". These pieces are not made to be used in circulation but in order to be picked up and kept. And there is also a technical reason why they are not legal tender anywhere except the issuing member state: How would anybody be able to keep track of all those issues with their different sizes, materials, designs, etc.?

But here is good news regarding the Netherlands: In addition to the "NL-only" 5 and 10 euro collector coins, they will soon issue commemorative €2 coins. The first one comes in about two weeks; the theme will be the 500th anniversary of the publication of the Praise of Folly, written by Erasmus of Rotterdam. Interestingly, the designer is British but was in NL as an Erasmus exchange student.

Christian

groentje wrote:and every British bank will change the Scottish ones if requested.

Notice the difference? That will definitely not work with your Dutch (or my German, etc.) collector coins. Try and find a bank in DE that will accept and exchange Dutch or Austrian or ... €5 pieces into standard euro cash. Good luck.

Christian

groentje wrote:I should probably refrase, the 5 euro coins are only legal tender in the Netherlands, but they may be accepted every where. Chances are, however, that in Spain or Finland these 5-ers won't be recognised, and thus refused.

Obvious: it would be a great amount of coins, various from both sides, than the majority it would not know... an absurd complication. If we want to emit circulating silver coins it ought to be like the others: common face and legal tender in all the EMU-states.

tabbs wrote:I don't particularly like the idea of those regional collector coins either, but let's face it, they are made for collectors - and I am tempted to add an "only". These pieces are not made to be used in circulation but in order to be picked up and kept.

Not as simple: for example in France it's attempted to stimulate the circulation of 5 € silver coins even with TV advertisings.

tabbs wrote:But here is good news regarding the Netherlands: In addition to the "NL-only" 5 and 10 euro collector coins, they will soon issue commemorative €2 coins. The first one comes in about two weeks; the theme will be the 500th anniversary of the publication of the Praise of Folly, written by Erasmus of Rotterdam. Interestingly, the designer is British but was in NL as an Erasmus exchange student.

This is completely off-topic, but I am really looking forward to finding this coin. (And now I see I must also get a copy of the Spanish €2 commemorative of this year.)

ART wrote:Not as simple: for example in France it's attempted to stimulate the circulation of 5 € silver coins even with TV advertisings.

They can advertise them as much as they want. After all, if they want people to get such collector coins, they will sure need to raise awareness first. And of course they can "sell" them better if they say that these pieces can be used for payments - if only in just one of the 20 euro countries ...

As for the differentiation (circulation - commemorative - collector coins), here is a nice overview:
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/eur ... ins_en.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Christian

http://www.delfi.lt/verslas/manolitai/i ... d=66837082

10 Azerbaijani qapiks are twins with 20 eurocent coin, just a little bit thinner, but both coins have 7 indents.

Hello! I am Turkish and i m a coin collector.I have realised that Turkish 25 kuruş is at the same size at a US nickel.And 1 kuruş of Turkey is at the same size as 1 cent.And the Albanian 20 leke-20 Eurocent is a perfect match.Also 50 hong kong cent also matches with 20 eurocent. For 2 eurocent,we have a nice 10 kopeck from russia.And 5 pfennig from West Germany.For 50 Eurocent matches with 100 S.K won on size.And 1 leva from 1992.10 Eurocent finds a size match with 10 bani from romania,a eu country.And another size match of 10 eurocent with polish 50 groszy. Thats all the matches that i can find now,i will search for more matches in my collection.

I received a Botswana 5 Pula coin instead of 1 Euro once in southern France.


I was not amused given the fact that it was only worth 50% of the value of a €1 coin, until I noticed the same handful of change contained a 2001 €1 coin.

Wow, so many treasures in one hand!

Ive received a 1$ from Singapore :
24,65×2,50mm
just between 1€ ( 23,25x2,33mm ) and 2€ ( 25,75x2,20mm ) :

Looks like 2 euro coin but is worth 2.85 euro.