New coins from Luxembourg

After the recent ascention of Grand Duke Guillaume V, Luxembourg is looking to get new Euro coins with his likeness on.

The national bank of Luxembourg has released an article and video with how they may appear.

https://www.bcl.lu/en/Media-and-News/Press-releases/2025/09/nouvelles-faces/index.html

They are planned to be released for circulation in the start of 2026.

Guillaume V:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_V,_Grand_Duke_of_Luxembourg

Interesting — I had no idea the accession of this new Grand Duke had just happened since it didn't make the news here. Or if it did, I just didn't listen until the end when they report “lesser” news… i.e. “lesser” from a North-American point of view.

Camerinvs

Interesting — I had no idea the accession of this new Grand Duke had just happened since it didn't make the news here. Or if it did, I just didn't listen until the end when they report “lesser” news… i.e. “lesser” from a North-American point of view.

The announcement of the abdication was made a year ago . It’s just taken place now. Much like in Denmark and previously Netherlands

luxembourgs new archduke indeed has not made the canadian news headlines from what I can see too. But then Luxembourg is, relatively speaking, insignificant 

I didn't really know the abdication was announced beforehand, yesterday was the first time the Czech media informed about it (and I believe that the only occasion when the Grand duke appeared in the news here was at the funeral of Elisabeth II, so I guess that even in central Europe Luxemburg is not the country which anyone speaks of too much).

By the way, I believe there's an EU law which obliges any monarchy using the Euro to change the portrait of their monarch on coins every 20 years or so (which Luxemburg didn't do during the reign of Henri I). I don't remember the exact law now, but it's interesting that the same portrait has been used on Luxemburg coins for the whole 23 years now despite this.

In any case, it's a good news for numismatists that there will be two new designs on European coins soon due to the ascension of new monarchs. 

I had not heard of the announced abdication… I'm surprised Henri didn't wait 4 or 5 more days to make his reign a full quarter of a century long.

As for the EU law about monarchs' portraits, this is very interesting. I'll try to dig it up online.

He made the original annoucnement in April 2024 that he would abdicate “soon”. Then in Oct 2024, Guillaume was elevated to some position as a precursor to the transition of duties.

And here is the legislation, especially Article 7:

1. Changes to the designs used for the national sides of regular coins may only be made once every 15 years, without prejudice to changes necessary to prevent counterfeiting of the currency. 
2. Without prejudice to paragraph 1, changes to the designs used for the national sides of regular coins may be made where the Head of State referred to on a coin changes. However, a temporary vacancy or the provisional occupation of the function of the Head of State shall not give any additional right to such a change.

I don't see anything requiring the head of state's portrait to be upgraded after a certain period of time. It sounds like it would actually be discouraged since the legislation aims at long-circulating types (at least 15 years) which increases familiarity with the coinage.

So, there was no problem for Henri to use the same portrait from 2002 to 2025, e.g. on the 5 euro cents.

Camerinvs

And here is the legislation, especially Article 7:

 

1. Changes to the designs used for the national sides of regular coins may only be made once every 15 years, without prejudice to changes necessary to prevent counterfeiting of the currency. 
2. Without prejudice to paragraph 1, changes to the designs used for the national sides of regular coins may be made where the Head of State referred to on a coin changes. However, a temporary vacancy or the provisional occupation of the function of the Head of State shall not give any additional right to such a change.

 

I don't see anything requiring the head of state's portrait to be upgraded after a certain period of time. It sounds like it would actually be discouraged since the legislation aims at long-circulating types (at least 15 years) which increases familiarity with the coinage.

 

So, there was no problem for Henri to use the same portrait from 2002 to 2025, e.g. on the 5 euro cents.

OK, maybe I didn't remember it correctly, thanks for the clarification. Still, Henri I was the only monarch whose portrait was used on euros from 2002 until now (of course, partially because he ascended the throne shortly before the Euro was introduced).

It was a good opportunity for me to look at yet another legal text about circulating coins. Compared to other issuers of currency, the EU has some of the best legislation — “best” in the sense of simplicity and clarity, and the clear aim to make it easy to distinguish between circulating and collectors' coins.