In June 1987 the European Community launched an education initiative that was to become one of the continent’s greatest success stories: the Erasmus programme. The name is a backronym of the English “European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students” and at the same time honours the Dutch humanist and universal scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam. To this day the project has enabled millions of students and young people to learn across borders, live abroad and discover other cultures. The 35th anniversary of this programme for education, youth and sport was celebrated in July 2022 with the fifth joint 2-euro issue of the eurozone. All 19 euro countries of the time took part in this collective emission.
Very much in the spirit of the European idea, the European Commission again relied on a democratic online vote for this joint issue, which took place in March 2021. Beforehand, all euro countries were able to enter the competition with various designs, so that more than 70 different design proposals were submitted in total. An expert jury drew up a first shortlist of six favourites, which were finally put to the concluding online vote. In this voting phase more than 72,000 Europeans cast their vote online. With a clear majority of over 22,000 votes, design no. 6 from France prevailed. The motif was created by Joaquin Jimenez, the renowned chief engraver of the French mint Monnaie de Paris.
All coins appeared with a uniform motif; the individual issuing countries can be told apart only by fine details such as the respective country names and country-specific inscriptions. The richly detailed winning motif artfully combines the historical roots with the modern vision of the Erasmus initiative. At its centre stands the portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam in a writing pose, directly modelled on a historic Renaissance painting. In the background a dynamic, almost mathematical network of lines and stars unfolds. These connected nodes symbolically depict the cross-border character of the Erasmus programme as well as the exchange of knowledge and the connection between people of different nations. Cleverly integrated into this pattern of lines is the anniversary number “35”, which stands out in relief depending on how the light falls. As this was traditionally a cross-border joint issue, the usual exception remained untouched: despite the joint issue, every participating country was allowed to issue further, purely national 2-euro commemorative coins in 2022.
