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New Euro Coin Released With MultiView Effect

Posted by timothy on from the newton-would-be-proud dept.

Jacco de Leeuw writes "Remember those postcards that showed different pictures depending on the angle you looked at them? Royal Dutch Mint has placed a new 10 Euro coin into circulation today that exhibits a similar effect. They invented a new minting technique called MultiView Minting. One side of the coin shows photos of the Dutch heir to the throne, his wife and their newborn daughter Amalia. The three pictures were lasered onto 46 ribs, which is the number of chromosomes in a human cell. This clip shows the effect."

9 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm speechless by DustMagnet · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Did you look at the video? I thought it looked really low quality. I assume that was ideal conditions for viewing. A baby photo on a coin? Can't you find anything there? I guess you're not much of a smartass.

    While I think it's really lame, I'm excited anyway. The EU lets each member state control only one side of the coin, the other is fixed. I see this as an opening shot. I look forward to the next member state that tries to do better than the Dutch. I like this better than when they used to kill each other.

    --
    'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
  2. Re:A real mint? by CanSpice · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, they seem to be like the Royal Canadian Mint, who produces both circulation coins and collectible coins. And their silver double-image hologram $20 coin looks quite cool.

  3. Taiwan 50 by bruthasj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Taiwanese 50 NT (1.50 USD) had this for years switching between the Arabic and Chinese numeral "50". And, it's not a collectors item, it's normal everyday currency. Sorry I don't have linkage or any more knowledge about the topic than this. Any takers on explaining?

  4. Cool technology, but ugh. by Vellmont · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's times like these I'm glad I live in a country that doesn't put useless royalty on its money. Are these people really so important to distribute their pictures on currency? Maybe I'm just a traditionalist when it comes to money, but you should be putting important people who've contributed to the society on money, not royalty.

    --
    AccountKiller
    1. Re:Cool technology, but ugh. by Maechtig · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, the coin's design is valuable. From a socio-political view, currency has a long history as a vehicle to assert national identity. Words and symbols on coins and paper remind citizens of their heritage and who they are as a people. Patriotism is a strong force, and at a time when European Union countries have been giving over buckets of autonomy to the EU (quite tangibly shown in the switch to the Euro) there is <b>comfort</b> in showing national symbols on coins like these. It's a way for the Netherlands to say, 'Hey we are Europeans, but we are Dutch, too.' And that's valid.

      Second, the techno 'shiny thing' value of this coin is useful as a publicity vehicle, raising international awareness about the Netherlands. It can't hurt tourism, and will attract numistmatists --taking currency out of circulation is always a goal of national mints. I agree, it would be fine to honor important national contributors. Perhaps they will. But using royalty appeals to the most common denominator, so it's understandable as a start.

      Besides, let's face it, babies are cute. Don't know that I've ever seen a baby on currency before. Next, bring on the puppies!

      --
      Gee, it's so tough to find a place to park around here!
  5. Re:Next: advertizing! by Matthias+Wiesmann · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Actually, this happened years ago in France, some marketing company did put some advertising stickers on the old 10 French franc coins (~1.5 Euro). It was declared illegal and disappeared. God those coins were ugly and heavy.

    Italian 1000 lira notes were also used in strange ways, as they were not worth a lot (roughly 50 Euro cents), people used to scribble things on them, so you had currency with grocery lists, telephone numbers and doodles. Then again, telephone coins (200 liras) were nearly legal tender...

    God, when will slashdot support unicode, so I can use the euro symbol...

  6. Those looney Dutch... by jpop32 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Dutch are prone to stuff like this.

    Their paper money (before it was replaced by Euros) was the funkiest ever. Full color, groovy designs. Looked like techno party flyers to me. Take a look:

    http://www.rgaros.nl/money/notes/index.html

    I once had a funny incident on italian railways when the train conductor refused to accept a 100 guilder banknote. He didn't believe me it was legitimate money (neither did three of his coworkers). It sure didn't help that the exchange rates table he had said 'Holland' and on the banknote it was 'Nederland'.

    So I had to get out at the next train station. :-)

    The Netherlands is one sweet country.

    1. Re:Those looney Dutch... by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Just today, I read that the Netherlands was the country where the people were the LEAST happy after the switch to the Euro, in comparison with other Euro countries.

      When it came, I was really happy about it: easier shopping across the border (Germany is 10 km. away from where I live), less hassle during vacation abroad, easier payment to/from other Euro countries, and a big, strong currency (check Dollar-Euro rates lately). I still feel that way.

      But the money & coins themselves: worthless! Okay, it's just money, and you get used to it real quick, but check out those beautiful banknotes linked above (especially the backsides on the more colourful ones): it was really sad to wave goodbye to those. And why can't banknotes be something nice/artsy to look at?

  7. Spains 500 Ptas coin had this one too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Spain's 500 Pesetas coin had this one too, more than a decade ago. It depicted the Mint's mark or the year when flipped. So you could read "M" (Madrid Mint's mark) or "93" (1993) for example

    Later 2000 pesetas coins had that too, in limited series with complex drawings (although they costed exactly 2000 pesetas, they were sold in banks with no profit as they were legal tender just as every normal coin)

    It was made to prevent currency falsification, as 500 pesetas were equivalent to 3 (~3.80 USD) and 2000 pesetas around 12 (~15.00 USD)