Estonia donates first €350,000 in coin card proceeds to Ukraine
The Bank of Estonia marked Ukrainian Independence Day on Wednesday by transferring the €354,117 in proceeds from the sale of coin cards featuring the €2 coin dedicated to Ukraine to the National Bank of Ukraine. To date, more than 25,000 coin cards have been sold.
Thus far, the greatest number of €2 Ukraine coin card purchases have come from Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Ukraine, France, Finland, Latvia, Spain, the U.S., Slovakia and Italy, the Bank of Estonia said in a press release.
The specially dedicated coin was designed by Daria Titova, a young Ukrainian refugee studying at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), and features the image of a girl protecting a bird in her hand accompanied by the words "Slava Ukraini." The accompanying coin card designed by Estonian artist Vladimir Taiger.
Estonia's central bank released a total of 40,000 coin cards for sale in early July, at a price of €18 each.
Preliminary work for the issue of the €2 coin with the special design dedicated to Ukraine began in April. The process typically takes around 18 months to complete, but as the central bank worked on preparations to produce the coin card and the €2 coin in parallel, the coin card for Ukraine was ready for issue in less than four months.
The Bank of Estonia will be transferring all revenue generated from the sale of the coin card — minus VAT and the cost of sales channels — to Ukraine's central bank. The transfer on Wednesday of more than €350,000 was the first, but will not be the last, as sales of the coin card continue, Estonia's central bank noted.
The coin card with the €2 coin dedicated to Ukraine can be purchased at the Bank of Museum store in Tallinn as well as from Omniva's online store.
Coin to enter circulation later this year
The Bank of Estonia will be issuing a total of 2 million €2 Ukraine coins into general circulation at the end of this year; the central bank opted to issue the coin card sooner so that it could send the proceeds generated from its sale to Ukraine as quickly as possible.
The €2 Ukraine was minted in Slovakia; the coin cards were made in Poland.
August 24 is Ukrainian Independence Day, marking the reestablishment of Ukraine with the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on August 24, 1991.
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Editor: Aili Vahtla
