Features a thoughtful depiction of the artist, who is aptly paired on the coin with a partial figure of his contemplative sculpture known as The Thinker. The portrait shows Rodin sporting a rugged beard and appearing as he did during the height of his artistic career in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Rodin and The Thinker appear together within a cameo segment that is encircled by 12 stars representing the European Union. On the bottom right of the cameo device are the inscriptions “A. Rodin”, which appears to be a replication of his signature, and the dual date “1917-2017” indicating the centennial of Rodin’s death. The acronym RF, indicating the coin’s nation of origin (République Française) is found atop the coin between Rodin’s head and that of the statue. RF surrounded by the mintmark and a privy mark of the mint's director.

The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, usually placed on a stone pedestal. The work shows a nude male figure of over life-size sitting on a rock with his chin resting on one hand as though deep in thought and is often used as an image to represent philosophy.

Originally named The Poet (French: Le Poète), The Thinker was initially a figure in a large commission, begun in 1880, for a doorway surround called The Gates of Hell. Rodin based this on The Divine Comedy of Dante, and most of the many figures in the work represented the main characters in the epic poem. This detail from the Gates of Hell was first named The Thinker by foundry workers, who noted its similarity to Michelangelo's statue of Lorenzo de Medici called "Il Penseroso" (The Thinker). Rodin decided to treat the figure as an independent work, at a larger size. The figure was designed to be seen from below and is normally displayed on a fairly high plinth, though the heights chosen by the various owners for these vary considerably.

• Mintmark of the Paris Mint: cornucopia (horn of plenty)
• The Mint director Yves Sampo's privy mark: pentagon with letters AG, MP and YS
• Engraver Joaquin Jimenez's privy mark: square within a larger square

A geographical map of Western Europe spans the outer ring and inner core on the right side of the coin. The inscription 2 EURO is superimposed over the map of Europe, with the numeral “2” located in an open field representing the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

12 stars are located on the right side of the outer ring, with six stars atop the map of Europe and six stars below it; six vertical stripes cut across the inner core of the coin, visually connecting the upper and lower star segments.

Luc Luycx, a designer at the Royal Belgian Mint, designed the Euro’s common reverse; his initials, LL, are seen on the right side of the design, just under the “O” in “EURO.”

The sequence "2 ★ ★" repeated six times alternately upright and inverted