Belgium has started minting a special 2.50 euro coin to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. The move comes after France demanded that Brussels scrap earlier minted two-euro coins made with the same aim.
The 2.50 euro coins will
be sold at a price of 6 euros. Collectors are expected to buy all
70,000 coins very quickly.
“This is the first Belgian coin with a nominal value of 2.50
euros. The coin portrays the picture of the Waterloo hill and a
schematic position of the troops during the battle,” the
Federal Public Service of Belgium said
on its website.
The authorities will also release several thousand 10-euro silver
coins. They will be sold at a price of 42 euros each.
“This silver coin depicts a scene at The Battle of
Waterloo” that depicts the Duke of Wellington and the Prince
of Orange, the commanders whose armies defeated Napoleon in the
battle, the statement said.
The coins have been recently a matter of controversy between
Paris and Brussels. Earlier Belgium minted about 180,000 2-euro
coins marking the French emperor’s defeat in Waterloo, a village
15 kilometers south of Brussels in present-day Belgium. French
troops were overpowered at the site by the combined British and
Prussian forces on June 18, 1815.
Paris, having learnt of Brussels’ actions, sent a letter to the
Council of Europe in March, saying that minting the coins could
cause an “unfavorable reaction in France.”
READ MORE: Coin conflict: France says
‘Non’ to 2-euro Waterloo commemoration
According to the letter, the Battle of Waterloo “has a
particular resonance in the collective consciousness that goes
beyond a simple military conflict.”
“The circulation of coins carrying a symbol that is negative
for a fraction of the European population to us appears
prejudicial, in a context where the governments of the Eurozone
are trying to strengthen unity and co-operation throughout the
monetary union,” the letter added.
Finally, all initial 180,000 copies of two-euro coins marking
Napoleon’s defeat were removed.
However, Belgian authorities didn’t give up on the idea of
commemorating the famous battle that was the last in Napoleon’s
reign. The authorities used a rule allowing EU states to mint
coins if they are in an irregular denomination – 2.50 euros in
this case.
“The goal is not to revive old quarrels. In a modern Europe,
there are more important things to sort out,” Belgian
Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt said, adding that the new
coins were not issued to anger France.
“But there’s been no battle in recent history as important as
Waterloo, or indeed one that captures the imagination in the same
way,” he said.
The Battle of Waterloo ended Napoleon’s European ambitions and
led to his exile on St Helena, where he died in 1821.