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Every few months, designs are released of new Euro coins. You may recall that under the agreement setting up the monetary aspects of the Euro, governments and central banks got to design one side of the coinage, which provided a (false) sense of continuing national currency identity for countries like Germany which had a strong attachment to their old notes and shrapnel. Two Euro coins can also specifically be used as occasional commemorative pieces.
Increasingly it seems that the artists are not entering into the spirit of things. One of the designs back in January was of a stick man that looked like a three year old had drawn it. The latest batch now takes the art of irony in a new direction.
At least two governments are set to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Louis Braille by minting special Euro coins. This is the same coinage that the French had to melt down in large numbers several years ago when markings for the blind were found to be confusing, while blind charities continue to complain about difficulties that arise from the relative tactile similarity between the Euro notes.
Meanwhile, the Vatican (which also uses the Euro) has come up with another strangely-inspired design. It is commemorating the International Year of Astronomy with "an allegory of the birth of the stars and planets together with several astronomical instruments".
Galileo’s inquisitors would be spinning in their graves – but not, of course, around the Sun.
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Lee Rotherham
Lee is a Research Fellow at the TPA. Co-author of the hit Bumper Books of Government Waste, he is an extensively published EU expert and front bench adviser.
