OREANDA-NEWS. August 06, 2013. Governor of the Bank of Latvia Ilmars Rimsevics started the minting equipment at the mint in Stuttgart, Germany, thereby launching the minting of Latvian euro coins.

The Latvian euro coins will feature the Latvian maiden from the interwar five-lats coin and the cents will sport the large and small version of Latvia’s coat of arms. The author of the graphic design for the 1- and 2-euro coins is Guntars Sietins and the author of the euro cent design is Laimonis Senbergs. People’s Competition of Ideas for the design of Latvian euro coins took place already in 2004 and the proposal of Ilze Kalnina, resident of Jekabpils, has now been put to use, albeit in a contracted form. Much work by artists and minting specialists has gone into preparing the coins, so that Latvia could once again take pride in well-designed money that will be legal tender in all euro area countries.

The event at Staatliche Munzen Baden-Wurttemberg was attended by Ingo Rust, state secretary of the Finance Ministry of Baden-Wurttemberg, management of the mint as well as representatives of the producers of prototypes of Latvian euro coins. The largest television channels of Latvia were also invited to record the launch as well as representatives of several German media.

Addressing the people present, Mr. Rimsevics emphasized the importance of the moment to Latvia. The path to euro introduction was long and took ten years since Latvia joined the European Union.  The Governor of the Bank of Latvia praised the collaboration with the Baden-Wurttemberg State Mint as very successful, which is good reason to be optimistic about the future.

The director of the mint Peter Huber said that the Bank of Latvia is a very demanding client, but the Baden-Wurttemberg mint has enough experience and professional expertise to be able to handle the most complicated orders. Previously, the mint has collaborated with the Bank of Latvia in minting both special-design one-lats coins and circulation coins.

Overall, 12 billion euro coins have been struck in the two mints of Baden-Wurttemberg. 20 money presses are designed for striking circulation coins and eight for collector’s coins and medals.

Janis Blums, head of the Cash and Money Circulation Department of the Bank of Latvia said that to ensure that all the lats coins in circulation can be exchanged and there is a reserve for euro circulation in 2013-2014, 400 million euro coins of different denominations will be needed (expressed in units of weight, it would amount to about 1600 tons).

The Latvian euro coins necessary for the changeover and the first year of circulation will be struck in two production units of the aforementioned mint, in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. This mint, chosen through a competition, has previously struck several lats circulation coins, for example, both one-lats coins of special design of 2012, featuring the hedgehog and Christmas bells, as well as about 40% of all German euro coins.