100th Anniversary of the Death of Grand Duke Guillaume IV

Grand Duke Henri and, set behind him, Grand Duke Guillaume IV — both shown in right-facing half-portrait. The text "GRANDS-DUCS DE LUXEMBOURG" and the year "2012", flanked by the mint mark and the mintmaster's initials, are struck in the upper field. The city of Luxembourg forms the backdrop. The names "HENRI" and "GUILLAUME IV" and his death year "† 1912" appear beside the respective portraits.

In 2012 a retrospective set was issued comprising the Luxembourg €2 commemorative coins of 2009–2012 (LU-09 G1, LU-09 G2, LU-10 G1, LU-11 G1, LU-12 G1, LU-12 G2).

Guillaume IV ruled the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg from 1905 until his death in 1912 - a short but dynastically significant reign. He belonged to the House of Nassau-Weilburg and was the last Luxembourg Grand Duke to leave no direct male heir. Since the house law permitted the crown to pass to female lines under certain conditions, he was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Marie-Adélaïde. This began the female-line succession within the House of Nassau that continues to this day and has shaped Luxembourg's monarchy profoundly. Guillaume IV himself was in poor health and was able to conduct government affairs only to a limited extent in his final years; no major political reforms fall within his reign, but rather a period of relative internal stability in a country undergoing increasing industrial development.

The hundredth anniversary of Guillaume IV's death in 2012 gave Luxembourg the occasion to recall this turning point in its own history of rulers. Within Luxembourg's national history, Guillaume IV stands less for achievements of his own than for the threshold at which the Grand Duchy changed its dynastic course. The Grands-Ducs de Luxembourg have shaped the small country's national identity between Germany, France and Belgium across generations - Guillaume IV marks the transition from one era to the next. As the issuing country, Luxembourg brings into focus with this commemorative coin an often-overlooked ruler whose significance lies less in his own reign than in what it made possible.