Italy

2021

Commemorative coin

Healthcare professionals

Official Journal of the European Union

The design depicts in the centre, a man and a woman in medical clothing with masks, a stethoscope and a medical folder representing doctors and nurses working on the front line in the fight against COVID-19. Above, the word ‘GRAZIE’ followed, on the right, by a heart symbol; on the left, a reproduction of the medical cross; in the centre, ‘RI’, acronym of the Italian Republic; on the right, ‘R’, identifying the Mint of Rome; below,, on the left, ‘CM’, initials of the designer Claudia Momoni; in exergue, the year of the coin’s issue ‘2021’. The coin’s outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag.

Additional information

The COVID 19 pandemic, which has been unfolding since December 2019, started in China and affected Italy first in Europe and particularly dramatically. The health systems of several northern Italian provinces were so overloaded that many patients could not be treated or could not be treated adequately and clinicians were forced to triage. On the night of 18-19 March 2020, a convoy of military trucks drove through Bergamo to transport coffins containing dead bodies to crematoria in the surrounding area. The morgues of the city's cemeteries and funeral homes were overcrowded; coffins had to be stored in churches. The coin dedicated to the healing professions shows a man and a woman in hospital gowns, wearing mouth-nose protection and holding a clipboard and stethoscope respectively - representing all the doctors and nurses fighting the pandemic and struggling tirelessly to recover their patients.

Edge lettering

Designer