There was a case behind the coin celebrating the 100th birthday of Italo Calvino, and the State Mint printed the image of it Menton instead Sanremo. The incident, reported by some newspapers, was raised by the Famija Sanremasca, the body founded in 1957 with the aim of preserving the history, traditions, art and culture of Sanremo and its district, and the municipality has already requested the withdrawal of the coin. so that a new edition can be created with the correct image, which should be that of Sanremo, the original city of his father Mario Calvino, where Italo studied and lived for years.
“The state mint has minted a 5 euro coin,” we read in a note from the Famija Sanremasca. “The obverse is dedicated to the Baron in the Trees, while on the reverse they might have wanted to use an image of Sanremo (…)” , which is correct since Calvino, to avoid the complicated birth dates, always said I was in Sanremo born. However, the image on the coin comes from Menton. At the Mint they did a cursory search on the Internet, where for some time an image of the panorama of Menton was referred to as Sanremo.
The Menton panoramic case was dismissed because Sanremo had been around for some time. “A few years ago we wrote to Google to have this image removed,” explains Silvana Ormea, tourism councilor for the municipality of Sanremo, “. They replied that they had removed it, but that it could still circulate between the various stocks on the Internet for a few years. However, we have written to the Mint and the Ministry of Economy and Finance, pointing out that while we are grateful for the initiative, “But I only regret that a picture of Menton was used instead of Sanremo.” Ormea also wrote to Calvino’s daughter Giovanna and asked whether she had at least been informed. “We are also waiting for your answer,” he concludes. “I would like to point out that none of us were informed about the initiative. Maybe if they had done that we could have avoided this mistake.”