Italy

2008

Commemorative coin

60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights

Official Journal of the European Union

The inner part of the coin depicts a man and a woman with an olive branch, an ear of corn, a cogwheel and some barbed wire, symbols representing the right to peace, food, work and freedom respectively, along with the links of a chain broken to form the figure ‘60o’. In the centre of the coin are the initials of the issuing country ‘RI’; to the left the year 2008; to the right the initials ‘MCC’ of the artist Maria Carmela Colaneri and the mint mark ‘R’; at the bottom, a cartouche with the inscription ‘DIRITTI UMANI’. The outer ring of the coin depicts the twelve stars of the European flag.

Additional information

At the session of the United Nations General Assembly held on 10 December 1948 in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, Resolution 217 was adopted with the - legally non-binding - Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its Article 1 reads: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." The coin pays tribute to this resolution and shows a man and a woman with the symbols of the right to peace (olive branch), to food (ears of corn), to work (cogwheel) and to freedom (a piece of barbed wire) as well as broken chain links forming the number "60".

Edge lettering

Designer