Austria

Commemorative coin

2022

35 years of the Erasmus programme

(Part of the joint issue " 35 years of the Erasmus programme ")

Official Journal of the European Union

To celebrate 35 years of the Eramus programme, euro-area Finance Ministers decided that euro-area Member States would strike a 2-euro commemorative coin using a common design on the national side. The public selected the winning design by web-voting. Voters had a choice of six designs, which had been pre-selected by a professional jury following a design competition among euro area Member States, and they chose the design created by Mr Joaquin Jimenez, professional designer at the Monnaie de Paris. Issuing countries: Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland The design is a mix of two major elements of the Erasmus programme: the original intellectual inspiration, Erasmus himself, and the allegory of its influence over Europe. The first one is symbolised by one of the most known depiction of Erasmus. The second one is symbolised by a beam of links going across the coin from a beacon to another, representing the numerous intellectual and human exchanges between the European students. As a reference to Europe, some of these links form other stars, born from the synergy between the countries. The figure 35, for 35th anniversary comes out from the stars in a contemporary graphical style. The outer ring depicts the twelve stars of the European flag. Legends: REPUBLIK ÖSTERREICH / 1987-2022 / ERASMUS PROGRAMM / J.J. (initials of the author Joaquin Jimenez)

Additional information

ERASMUS is a backronym for 'EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students'. The ERASMUS exchange programme is aimed at EU citizens who have been studying at a higher education institution for at least one year and supports a three to 12-month stay abroad at a university within the EU or an internship. In addition, there are master's and doctoral programmes, programmes for young entrepreneurs, for school, vocational and adult education. Internships as well as professional development measures are financially supported and language courses abroad are also made possible for working people. The backronym refers to the Dutch philosopher and theologian Erasmus of Rotterdam (≈1466-1536), described as "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists", depicted after a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger created in 1523. The coin designer ''Joaquin Jimenez'', whose initials "J.J." appear next to the pen of Erasmus, has designed as a background a network of connecting lines between the twelve stars symbolising Europe arranged in a circle, which is intended to represent the manifold intellectual and human exchanges between European students. By relieving some partial areas between the connecting lines, the numbers 3 and 5 emerge, referring to the 35th anniversary of the programme. In a block of three to four lines in a quarter circle at the bottom right, "1987-2022" (the last number also designating the year of issue) is written above the occasion of issue, followed by the country name, if this does not consist of an abbreviation placed in the middle of the motif.

Edge lettering

Designer