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Greek euros with mintmarks
On January 1, 1999 eleven European member states adopted the euro as their formal currency and started producing the required coins and banknotes in order to replace their national currencies by January 1, 2002. The only member state that did not meet the economic criteria to join the new european currency was Greece. Following a delay of exactly two years, Greece was also accepted into the Eurozone by the European Council's Decision of June 19, 2000.
Because of the delay, however, it became impossible for the Hellenic Mint to produce 1300 million euro coins in time for the January 1, 2002 changeover to the new currency. The officials decided to order 500 million coins from abroad (Spain, Finland and France) and these coins feature two different mintmarks: the anthemion flower, which can be found on all the Greek modern coins and a small letter indicating the mint in which the coin was struck.
- Mintmark "S": Finland (Suomi) on the 1 and 2 euro coins
- Mintmark "E": Spain (Espana) on the 20 cent coins
- Mintmark "F": France on the 1, 2, 5, 10 and 50 cent coins
- Anthemion flower
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Numbered starsThe lettered mintmarks can be found in different positions on each coin, but always inside a star close to the date. The picture on the left numbers each star and will help you locate the mintmark.
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