Euro coins edge of the €2 coin also protects it from counterfeiting. Euro coins were designed in cooperation with organisations representing blind persons, and as a result they incorporate many features allowing them to be distinguished by touch alone. In addition, their visual appearance is designed to make them easy to tell apart for persons who cannot read the inscriptions on the coins. The coins increase in size and weight with value. Of the eight denominations of euro coins, the three lowest denominations are small, resemble copper in colour and are quite thin and light. The next three denominations resemble gold in
2 euro coin coin subject to legal-tender commemorative issues and hence there is a large number of national sides, including three issues of identical commemorative sides by all eurozone members. The coin dates from 2002, when euro coins and notes were introduced in the 12-member eurozone and its related territories. The common side was designed by Luc Luycx, a Belgian artist who won a Europe-wide competition to design the new coins. The designs of the one- and two-euro coins were intended to show the European Union (EU) as a whole with the then-15 countries more closely joined together than on the 10 to