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Obverse of '1794' 1 Euro Pattern Coin
Obverse of '1794' 1 Euro Pattern Coin

Countries
Reverse of '1794' 1 Euro Pattern Coin
Reverse of '1794' 1 Euro Pattern Coin

"1794" Euro Pattern Coin Set
The Birmingham Mint produced euro coins for a number of the eurozone countries. As part of its marketing effort to win this minting business, it produced a number of pre-production pattern euro coin sets. We show a photograph of the 1 euro from one of these sets.
Trial or pattern sets like this would normally be sent to governments of relevant countries as a commercial sample, possibly with a request that they be returned at some time. Often a small quantity don't get returned, and eventually find their way onto the market, sometimes decades after the original issue. Because the Birmingham Mint went into liquidation in March 2003, it has perhaps accelerated this process, as it appears that a number of very rare coins produced by them have recently appeared.
Although we have only managed to acquire one example of this rare set, we believe that about 75 sets were produced, and are now starting to appear on the market. We are hoping to be able to source more sets at a reasonable price.
Our set is uncirculated, but has been handled. This shows up very positively when we photograph coins using flash. Every fingerprint and bagmark show up. We have actually cleaned up our image as usual to remove most of the "scatter" effect which tends to get exaggerated by using flash.

Obverse
The obverse of all eight coins shows the badge or logo of The Birmingham Mint, a moneyer about to strike a coin by hand hammering, with a balance scale behind, a cameo head to the right, and a scroll in front reading H 1794 KN

Reverse
The reverse of all eight coins shows a design superficially the same as that on the regular euro coins, except for slight differences. The word "specimen" is stamped on each, and the map design is slightly different in a number of places. We do recall that there was considerable debate about the precise designs before the final definitive designs were chosen. The reverse designs on this set are presumably based on an earlier interim version.

Value
An accurate value for this sort of coin set is difficult is determine.
Although it has no legal tender status, the mintage figure is very low, certainly compared with the highly valuable 2002 Vatican euro mint set. We have fixed a price for our copy of this set based on the price we paid, however we may well regret this price if they subsequently start selling for 10 times our price.
These sets are undoubtedly an important part of the euro's history.

Prices & Availability
DateDescriptionMintageGradeAvailablePrice £Price US$Price €
"1794"Birmingham Mint Euro Pattern Set (8 coins)75Uncirculated, but see above No£1,000$1,650Price €1,500

Postage & Packing:
UK: At buyer's Risk £3.50 or
Fully Insured £9 (Usually by Royal Mail Special Delivery)
USA: Airmail at buyer's risk $10 or
Fully Insured $20
For further details, please see our Postage & Packing page.

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Order Form - USA


Order Form - UK
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Order Form - Rest of World

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