There are 100 cents to the euro, the name derived from the Latin word for one hundred. But minting all the euros and cents has been far from trouble-free. In several countries minting had to be halted after the discovery of design faults or problems with the mints.

The first official euro coin was minted in May 1998 in Bordeaux. The French wanted to have a head start to begin production of their 7.5 billion share of the new coins. However, they jumped the gun a little as the original design was abandoned. In the end the French mint had to melt down the first nine million 10 cent coins, at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.

Germany ran into trouble too. The points of the twelve stars around the edge of the euro coins pointed in the wrong direction, and following an 'artistic evaluation' production was stopped.