I don’t think we’ll have a lot of 5 Euro coins in our pockets…
They’re mostly for collectors and numismatists. (I think there are something like just 2 millions of these coins around)

Um, if they’re for ALL of Europe, why are they using the French mantra? Just curious.

I guess than for as for all the previous coins and for all the countries and there will be a national face and a european face for each coin.
Any coin being valid anywhere in europe, i am not even sure that the country face depends on the country in which it was introduced.

Great ! I have to get one, at least for chandeleur purpose.. When we were little, we used to hold a silver 50 francs coin in the hand while fliping the crepes to bring us luck all year long… and I don’t have a 50 francs coin anymore…

You should move to The Netherlands. There, businesses have effectively banned the small coins (1 & 2 cents) from their registers. All total amounts are rounded to the nearest 5 cent point. It is still legal tender, but a lot of shops do only reluctantly accept, and do not give back the 1 or 2 cent pieces.
I think David’s comment is accurate. So it will be a collector’s special edition coin, which officially will be legal tender.

Pascal, yeah, with a few exceptions, coins are introduced in “their” countries.
This is why Austrian, Finnish or Irish coins are somewhat rare in France for example.

Among the “few exceptions” parts, I can mention the fact that for some reasons, when the Euro was first introduced (or maybe a bit later), a bunch of the €1 and €2 coins introduced in France had been produced in Spain… Hence the reason why the Spanish versions of these coins are extremely common in France.

I am an American who travels to Europe twice a year. I got one of these coins in Paris in Fall 2008. I went to the DDR Museum in Berlin in June. I went to the lady at the ticket counter to pay my 5,50 Euro entrance fee but she refused to take the coin, telling me it was not real. I was furious and gave her a 100 note instead and made her change it. I will keep the coin as a good luck charm. It seems these coins by country are like our state quarters here in the US.