Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Schwerin Castle. The inscription 'Mecklenburg-Vorpommern' appears beneath the castle, with the engraver's initials 'HH' along the lower inner edge. Above the design, the mint mark — 'A', 'D', 'F', 'G' or 'J'. On the upper outer ring, twelve stars in a semicircle interrupted at the centre by the year '2007'. 'Bundesrepublik Deutschland' forms a semicircle on the lower outer ring.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is Germany's fifth-largest federal state by area and occupies a geographically and historically distinct position in the country's northeast. The area between the Baltic coast, the lake district, and the Vorpommern lagoon landscape was divided for centuries between different ruling interests: the Duchy of Mecklenburg, sovereign since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, and Vorpommern, administered at various times by Sweden, Prussia, and finally Germany, were only merged into a single state after 1945 and definitively with the re-formation of German federal states in 1990. Economically and demographically, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is among Germany's structurally weaker regions, but it has established itself nationally as a tourist destination — especially through its Baltic coastline with Rügen and Usedom and the Mecklenburg Lake District.

Schwerin Castle, the landmark of the state capital Schwerin, is regarded as one of the most significant buildings of historicism in Central Europe. The present structure was built essentially between 1845 and 1857 under Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II, based on designs by several architects including Georg Adolf Demmler and Gottfried Semper, drawing stylistically on French Renaissance castles, above all Chambord. Located on a castle island in Lake Schwerin, it served until 1918 as the residence of the Mecklenburg grand dukes and today houses the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Since 2007, Schwerin Castle has been on Germany's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status. The same year saw the German 2-euro commemorative coin of the Federal States series featuring Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as the fifth motif in the series.