2 euro Monaco 2012, 500th Anniversary of the Foundation of Monaco's Sovereignty by Lucien I Grimaldi

2 Euro Monaco 2012, 500th Anniversary Foundation of Monaco's Sovereignty by Lucien I Grimaldi





Monegasque commemorative 2 euro coins 2012 - The 500th anniversary of the foundation of Monaco's Sovereignty, by founder Lucien 1er Grimaldi


Commemorative 2 euro coins from Monaco
Description: The inner part of the coin shows a portrait of LUCIEN 1er Grimaldi in profile facing to the left. The words “SOUVERAINETE DE MONACO” appear above the portrait in an arc along the upper edge of the inner part of the coin, flanked by the years "1512" and "2012". Two ornamental details are engraved at the beginning and at the end of the text. At the bottom, the horn of plenty, mintmark of the "Monnaie de Paris" and the "fleurette", hallmark of the engraving workshop, flank the portrait on the left hand side and the right hand side, respectively. Above the mintmark is engraved the inscription "LUCIEN Ier". The twelve stars of the European Union surround the design on the outer ring of the coin.



Reverse: left from the coin centre face value: 2, on the right inscription: EURO; in the background of the inscription a map of Europe; in the background of the map vertically six parallel lines ending on both sides with five-pointed stars (the reverse is common for all euro coins)

Issuing volume: 100 000 coins
Date of issue:   1 July 2012
Face value:      2 euro
Diameter:        25.75 mm
Thickness:       2.2 mm
Weight:            8.5 gr
Composition: BiAlloy (Nk/Ng), ring Cupronickel (75% copper - 25% nickel clad on nickel core), center Nickel brass (75% copper - 20% zinc - 5% nickel)

Lucien, Lord of Monaco
Lucien (1487 – 22 August 1523) became Lord of Monaco on 11 October 1505, having murdered his predecessor and brother, Jean II, and held that sovereignty until his death.
He was the third son of Lambert Grimaldi (1420–1494) and Claudine Grimaldi (1451–1515). His elder brother Louis was disinherited due to insanity.
On 25 September 1514 he married Jeanne de Pontevès-Cabanes. The couple had at least five children.
A year after Lucien's reign began, Genoa broke free of France, and many of its people fled to Monaco for refuge. In December 1506, 14,000 Genoese troops besieged Monaco and its castle. The blockade lasted for five months, until Lucien was able to rout the Genoese in March 1507. Monaco, and by extension Lucien, was now in a tight spot, being subjects of France but caught in a diplomatic tight spot between France and Spain, trying to preserve its fragile independence.
In 1515, Lucien bought the feudal rights over the city of Mentone, retained by the family of Anne de Lascaris, Countess of Villars, thus bringing the city, as a whole, under Monaco's sovereignty until the French Revolution.
On 22 August 1523, Lucien was assassinated by his nephew, Bartholomew Doria of Dolceaqua, son of Lucien's sister Francoise Doria, at the Prince's Palace of Monaco. His body was dragged down the steps of the palace by Doria's men, to be shown to the disbelieving masses, thus inciting a riot wherein the people of Monaco chased Doria and his men out of the country.
Andrea Doria, the famous admiral and a cousin to Bartholomew, is believed to have had prior knowledge of the assassination. The full extent of his compliance in this event is speculation, stemming from his being in the Port of Hercules with his squadron of ships on the day of the assassination and his having received a message from Bartholomew that was sent out of the palace just moments before Bartholomew carried out the assassination. The message was believed to have been a ruse to get rid of Lucien's major domo and twelve or fourteen of Lucien's armed men, leaving Lucien alone in the company of his nephew, but for one slave.
Lucien was succeeded by his youngest son, Honoré.