2 Euros Specimen

Cyprus adopted the euro on 1 January 2008, making this the first year of issue for Cypriot euro coinage. The transition ended a decades-long run of the Cyprus pound, which had been pegged to sterling until 1972 and had survived the Turkish occupation of the north in 1974 — a partition that still left roughly a third of the island outside the monetary union's practical reach when these were struck.