The European Union flag would have been misrepresented. Or rather, it would have been stamped into the metal without fully respecting the conditions prescribed by the European Commission Stars the flag would not have been sufficiently visible. And the Monnaie de Paris, the French equivalent of the state coin, had to be destroyed 27 million coins. A surreal story from France, which the transalpine newspaper La Lettre reported on in the last few hours. According to the reconstructions, a new edition of the 10, 20 and 50 euro cent coins should have been put into circulation in the new year. The new currencies had already been issued last November and the Minister of Economy and Finance had already marked the presentation of the initiative on his agenda.
However, a few days before the ceremony there was an unexpected and final stop: the European Commission, which monitors compliance with the standards for euro coins characteristic of each state, actually did so failed the new design. The reason? The stars of the EU flag depicted on the cent in question were, as mentioned, non-compliant: they were not visible and apparently did not stand out sufficiently from the profile of the continent. And so the green light was never given: Monnaie actually had a mountain of useless change in front of him, and that was the case melted and reused to make other coins (this time according to the Commission's specifications). An “accident” that would apparently be the result of rather awkward communication between the parties. And it would have caused damage to the French treasury between 700,000 and 1,200,000 euros.
When reconstructing the event, it turned out that the Monnaie de Paris had previously sent the new design to Brussels, but at the same time (perhaps to be ahead of the time) had started minting the coins without Wait for official approval. And in fact, according to some government sources, Monnaie also ignored an informal communication warning about the design of the new coins, precisely in view of this Stars. “After the new 1 and 2 euro coins at the beginning of 2022, the exchange of the 10, 20 and 50 euro cent coins was decided and approved,” explained Monnaie, “the designs were submitted to the French authorities at the end of the summer without any problems submitted.” decided and approved in 2023, but the process was unusually lengthy at the European Commission. That’s why we brought forward production, but on December 1, Europe rejected the draft, contrary to all predictions.”