A small piece of Luxembourg history was made in Bordeaux on Monday. At the Monnaie de Paris facility in Pessac, Grand Duke Guillaume personally struck the very first new Luxembourg euro coin bearing his own portrait.
The new Luxembourg euro coin was designed by Italian designer Chiara Principe.
The moment marks the end of an era lasting more than 20 years: since the introduction of the euro in 2002, Luxembourg's coins have featured Grand Duke Henri.
The new coins are set to gradually enter circulation in Luxembourg from 13 July.
Production is taking place at a high-security facility in Pessac, near Bordeaux. The Monnaie de Paris has been producing coins there since 1973, handling the entire process from the first metal blank to the finished, packaged coin.
Around one billion circulation coins are produced there each year. Some 600 million are destined for the French market, while the remainder are sent to other EU countries, as well as countries in Africa and South America.
Security measures are strict. When staff and visitors enter and leave the site, their magnetic mass is checked to ensure that no one exits the factory with coins in their pockets. Some machines at the facility can produce up to 800 coins per minute.
The new Luxembourg euro coin was designed by Italian designer Chiara Principe. The portrait of Grand Duke Guillaume is based on photographs provided by the Maison du Grand-Duc.
Viewed from the front of the coin, Grand Duke Guillaume looks to the left, described in numismatic terms as a right-facing portrait, in the opposite direction to Grand Duke Henri. This follows a long-standing tradition during changes of sovereign.
For the Minister of Finance Gilles Roth, the new coin is also a symbol of Luxembourg's ties to both Europe and the monarchy.
Despite the growing use of digital payment methods, cash remains important. This is also confirmed by officials at the Monnaie de Paris.
"When there is a conflict, people fall back on physical money", explained Fabrice Bonneau, industrial director in Pessac.
Luxembourg's Minister of Finance shares this assessment. "Whenever there is a crisis, people want to have cash at home so that they can still pay with cash if something stops working", said Roth.
Luxembourg will also retain its full euro coin system, meaning that even the small 1- and 2-cent coins will continue to be produced.
"We did not want to move away from traditional means of payment", the minister said. Even if the smallest coins may increasingly become symbolic, Roth said, Luxembourg still considers them part of the complete euro set.
The new coins bearing Grand Duke Guillaume's portrait will therefore gradually enter circulation from 13 July. The old coins featuring Grand Duke Henri will not disappear immediately. They will remain valid and can continue to be used everywhere in future.
The new euro coins, and how the Central Bank ensures that enough cash remains in circulation, will be discussed on Pisaon 13 July, when the new coins enter circulation.
