Obverse. Photo © NumisCorner.com
  • 2 Euro 2010, KM# 494, San Marino, 500th Anniversary of Death of Sandro Botticeli
  • 2 Euro 2010, KM# 494, San Marino, 500th Anniversary of Death of Sandro Botticeli
  • 2 Euro 2010, KM# 494, San Marino, 500th Anniversary of Death of Sandro Botticeli, Coincard
Description

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445 – May 17, 1510), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, a movement that Giorgio Vasari would characterize less than a hundred years later in his Vita of Botticelli as a "golden age". Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.

Among Botticelli's best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera.

Obverse

Depicts "Pleasure", a detail of one of the three dancing Graces, freely inspired by the painting "Primavera" by Sandro Botticelli. On the top is the year mark, on the left the name of the issuing country SAN MARINO and the mint mark and on the right the initial m of the designer Roberto Mauri. The twelve stars of the European Union surround the design on the outer ring.

Primavera is a large panel painting in tempera paint by Sandro Botticelli made in the late 1470s or early 1480s. It has been described as one of the most popular paintings in Western art.

The Three Graces are sisters, and traditionally accompany Venus. In classical art (but not literature) they are normally nude, and typically stand still as they hold hands. They are identified as Voluptas, Castitas, and Pulchritudo (Pleasure, Chastity and Beauty).

2010
SAN MARINO
R m

Reverse

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.”

2 EURO
LL

Edge

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

2 ★ 2 ★ 2 ★ 2 ★ 2 ★ 2 ★

2 Euro

500th Anniversary of Death of Sandro Botticeli

KM# 494 Schön# 501
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Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Non-circulating)
Material Bi-Metallic
Ring Cupronickel
Center Nickel Brass
Weight 8.5 g
Diameter 25.75 mm
Thickness 2.2 mm
Shape round
Alignment Medal
Mint
Mint of Rome (R)

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