Two Euro 2016 Sachsen (Saxony), Coin from Germany - detailed information

The Two Euro coin (€2.00) is a circulating bi-metallic coin made of two alloys: the inner part of nickel brass, the outer part of copper-nickel. Like all the common circulation coins (from 1 cent to €2), the denomination is issued by the separate countries in the Eurozone and is legal tender in all of them, irrespective of which country has issued it. The denomination was introduced in 2002, when Germany retired the German Mark currency and introduced the Euro.

The coins have a common reverse designed by Luc Luycx in 1999 which shows a map of the European Union; it was changed in 2007 to reflect the enlargement of the Union. Each country has its own national obverse; the German regular obverse features the German Federal Eagle.

The €2 is also the only denomination in which circulating commemorative Euro coins are issued; these are also legal tender in all countries of the Eurozone, no matter which country issued them; commemoratives of other denominations are only legal tender in the issuing country. The number of commemorative coins is limited to two (before 2012 to one) per country per year (in addition to any common issue) and to 5 percent of the total mintage output. Given that the reverse is fixed, the commemorative designs are always on the obverse.

The Sachsen (Saxony) €2 coin is the eleventh issue in the series called Die 16 Bundesländer der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (The 16 States of the Federal Republic of Germany). The year in which the coin for a specific state is issued coincides with that state's Presidency of the Bundesrat.

Saxony (German: Sachsen), officially the Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen), is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres.

The history of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, and twice a republic. The first Free State of Saxony was established in 1918 as a constituent state of the Weimar Republic. After World War II, it became part of the communist East Germany and was abolished by the government in 1952. Following German reunification, the Free State of Saxony was reconstituted with enlarged borders in 1990 and became one of the five new states of the Federal Republic of Germany.

German Two Euro coins issued in 2016 have now been in circulation for eight years.