Portugal

2021

Commemorative coin

Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Official Journal of the European Union

The design depicts the representation of the link between the capital of Portugal and the others European capitals and thereby draw a map, within the lettering ‘PRESIDÊNCIA DO CONSELHO DA UNIÃO EUROPEIA PORTUGAL 2021’ (English – PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION PORTUGAL 2021). The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag.

Additional information

Portugal holds the EU Presidency in the first half of 2021. The coin designer Eduardo Aires depicts Lisbon as the westernmost capital of the European Union in the origin of a tuft of rays with an aperture angle of 92°, indicating the directions in which the other EU capitals appear on the map from Lisbon. However, they are rotated counterclockwise by 9° compared to the normal map display, in which the east direction points horizontally to the right and the north direction points upwards, so that the rightmost line of the tuft to Valletta, which in real terms deviates by 9° to the right from the east direction, is horizontal on the coin. The leftmost line directed towards Dublin thus deviates from the vertical by 2° to the left instead of 7° to the right. Since Prague and Vilnius lie almost on the same line, only 25 directional rays are visible. Important tasks of the Portuguese Council Presidency are the coordination of the EU-Corona aid package of 750 billion euros and European social policy.

Edge lettering

Designer