Crete has disappeared off the map on the front side of the official 1 Euro coin. We do not know why. Anybody?

The answer why Crete in the end was left out from the 1 and 2 Euro coins: this seems a decision of the Greek government itself! The winning design of the Euro coins was done by the Belgian Luc Luycx. In 1997 this design was given the opportunity to be changed a) for technical reasons and b) for aesthetic reasons: every country involved could decide to change the way their country was represented on the map on the European side of the coin. The European Council in June 1997 decided to incorporate the suggested change(s) during a meeting in Amsterdam. I am not sure about this, but obviously Crete was 'deleted' from the map and if you have a close look to the original design (see right) one must conclude that the position of Crete towards the mainland is somewhat strange. The right place would interfere with one of the 12 stars, which represent the 12 countries involved in the Euro, and also serve as an aid to visually handicapped people. I could not find more details about this then above. And it's a pity! Erno.

Detail of official front side Euro coin

Detail of initial design, with Crete still on it