Description

The Presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, the upper house of the EU legislature. It rotates among the member states of the EU every six months. The presidency is not an individual, but rather the position is held by a national government. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the President of the European Union. The presidency's function is to chair meetings of the Council, determine its agendas, set a work programme and facilitate dialogue both at Council meetings and with other EU institutions.

Finland's EU Presidency of the Council took place during the second half of 2006, taking over from Austria and passing it to Germany.

Two commemorative coins were issued with a face value of 5 and 50 Euro.

Center Gold: 6.9 g (Au .750 + Cu .250)
Ring Silver: 5.9g (Ag .925 + Cu .075)

Designer: Reijo Juhani Paavilainen

Obverse

Depicts a negotiating table, which is symbolized by the distinctive rectangular protrusion, the vertically placed country name in Finnish and Swedish and the horizontally placed year of issue form a stylized chairman's mallet. On both sides of the conference table speech bubbles with letter compositions inside, but no words can be distinguished.

SUOMI FINLAND
20 06

Reverse

Depicts the pattern consists entirely of letters which do not form any words. When looking carefully, the figure also features a human face and a speech bubble.

In addition to the denomination, it bears the initials of the Mint of Finland’s President and CEO Raimo Makkonen (M) and designer Reijo Juhani Paavilainen (P).

M P
5 EURO

Edge
Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Non-circulating)
Material Bi-Metallic
Ring Silver
Center Gold
Weight 12.8 g
Diameter 27.25 mm
Thickness -
Shape round
Alignment Medal
Mint
Mint of Finland

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