Description

Estonia issued a common circulating commemorative €2 coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Estonian state. The coin is intended to symbolise the people of Estonia, and so 1,317,800 coins minted to match the population of Estonia on 1 January 2017 according to data from Statistics Estonia.

Estonia as a unified political entity first emerged after the Russian February Revolution of 1917. With the collapse of the Russian Empire in World War I, Russia's provisional government granted national autonomy to a unified Estonia in April. The Governorate of Estonia in the north was united with the northern part of the Governorate of Livonia. Elections for a provisional parliament, Maapäev, were organized. On 5 November 1917, two days before the October Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Estonian Bolshevik leader Jaan Anvelt violently usurped power from the legally constituted Maapäev in a coup d'état, forcing the Maapäev underground.

After the collapse of the peace talks between Soviet Russia and the German Empire in February 1918, mainland Estonia was occupied by the Germans, with Bolshevik forces retreating to Russia. Between the Russian Red Army's retreat and the arrival of advancing German troops, the Salvation Committee of the Estonian National Council Maapäev issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence in Pärnu on 24 February 1918.