Depicts a portrait of King Charles V with the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece on the right, and the golden Karslgulden from the second issue period from 1521 on the top left. The inscription "Charles V" surrounded by the country code (BE for Belgium) and date above, the mint and privy marks below. The outer ring depicts the twelve stars of the European flag.

Charles V (1500–1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Castile and Aragon) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy from 1506 to 1555. As he was head of the rising House of Habsburg during the first half of the 16th century, his dominions in Europe included the Holy Roman Empire, extending from Germany to northern Italy with direct rule over the Austrian hereditary lands and the Burgundian Low Countries, and a unified Spain with its southern Italian kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Furthermore, his reign encompassed both the long-lasting Spanish and the short-lived German colonization of the Americas. The personal union of the European and American territories of Charles V was the first collection of realms labelled "the empire on which the Sun never sets".

• Royal Dutch Mint's mintmark: Caduceus or Mercury's wand, a short staff entwined by two serpents
• Royal Belgian Mint Director's privy mark: Coat of arms of the municipality Herzele (Ingrid Van Herzele)
• Engraver: Luc Luycx

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