John Fitzgerald Kennedy on euros (?)

San Marino planned to issue a 2 euro commemorative coin in 2013, featuring former United States President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Although the theme was completely unrelated to European history, it only took a couple of days for the eBay (Germany) to become flooded with pre-orders. Prices quickly soared as dealers assumed a huge interest from the vast United States coin market and everything was running smoothly in the otherwise irrational collecting world. After all, the theme of the coin was catchy enough, marking the "50th Anniversary of the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy".

Despite the numerous eBay pre-sales, official press releases and illustration of the coin from San Marino, the European Central Bank did not authorize the issue and cancelled its release. The official reason was that the theme could not be demonstrably related to San Marino and the country was forced to replaced it with a commemorative 2-euro dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the death of Pinturicchio.

San Marino 5 euros 2003 JFK

Euro collector coin issues have a more relaxed policy and San Marino was able to modify its original plans and release a slightly modified John Fitzgerald Kennedy coin. According to the Conclusions of the Ecofin Council meeting on January 31, 2000, to ensure that Euro collector coins are readily distinguishable from Euro coins intended for circulation, the face value of collector coins should be different from that of the coins intended for circulation (i.e. Euro coins cannot have a face value equal to the 8 denominations: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 Euro cent and 1 and 2 Euro). As a result, a 5 euro 2013 silver coin was produced instead.