Banks, Estonia, Financial Services

At 13.00 on 26 June Eesti Pank will present the two-euro circulation coin with a special design dedicated to the events that preceded Estonian independence in the White Hall of Toompea castle at a meeting of the Noorte Maapäev Youth Assembly. The coins will enter circulation and be available from the online shop from 14.00 on 26 June.

On 26 June 1917 a regulation on the election of a provincial council was published in the Tallinna Teataja newspaper, setting out the procedures, main dates and other details for the election of the Estonian Provincial Assembly, or the Maapäev. Exactly 100 years to the day later as part of the celebration of the centenary of the Republic of Estonia, school students who are standing for the Noorte Maapäeva Youth Assembly will all come together.

“Eesti Pank is greatly honoured to present the two-euro circulation coin at the meeting of the Noorte Maapäev. The original elections to the Maapäev provincial assembly and the decisions taken by the Maapäev laid the foundations for Estonia to become an independent republic on 24 February 1918. By presenting the coin on 26 June we are symbolically bringing together different generations from the past and from today, in the same way that the national side of the commemorative coin does”, said Ardo Hansson, Governor of Eesti Pank.

The design for the two-euro commemorative coin dedicated to the events that preceded Estonia’s independence shows oak leaves, bare oak branches and the sinuous trunk of an oak. The winding oak symbolises Estonia’s road to independence, the bare branches relate to the year 1917, and the leaves symbolise strength, achievement and longevity. The oak leaves feature on the great coat of arms of the Republic of Estonia. The coin was designed by Jaan Meristo.

A two-euro commemorative coin is a circulation coin with the usual common side and a special commemorative design on the national side. In all, 1.5 mln of the coins will be minted. Of these, 10,000 will be packaged as souvenirs with a coin card and a price of seven euros. The coins were minted by the Lithuanian Mint and the coin cards were made by Kurowski Group Sp. z o.o. of Poland.

Eesti Pank will start to release the coins to banks from 26 June. After that they will start to enter general circulation through retailers. The coins and coin cards will also be on sale in the Eesti Pank online shop from 14.00 on 26 June and from 27 June the commemorative coins and coin cards will be available from the Eesti Pank museum shop. The coin card will also be on sale from 27 June in the post offices of Eesti Post that sell collector coins and other collector items, but the post offices will not sell individual coins or rolls of coins.

Each purchaser can buy up to ten coin cards. The coins and coin cards cannot be booked in advance. There is no limit on how many commemorative coins can be bought. Individual coins and rolls of coins will be sold at their face value, but there will be a service fee for larger orders that relates to the weight of the coins. Eesti Pank retains the right to change the amounts on sale in response to demand.