In response to news that the U.K. government is releasing new 50 pence coins featuring the slogan “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations,” Luxembourg officials have announced they too will release a celebratory Brexit coin.
To be released on January 31, the day that Boris Johnson’s U.K. leaves the European Union, the collectible 50-cent piece will be unveiled to the public after being paraded from Kirchberg to the Glacis.
Quoting Prime Minister Xavier Bettel’s salty remark back in 2018 at a European Council summit in Brussels, the sleek piece of metal will feature “Brexit is your choice, not mine!” on one face and on the other the image of the prime minister himself waving goodbye.
Some 352,000 of these will be minted in the coming days. The number, far from being plucked from the air, represents both Luxembourg’s international dialling code and the number of new applications for Luxembourgish nationality received from British expats in recent weeks.
Mint employee Gerty Hoffmann was excited when she first heard the news: “We had to rummage down the back of a lot of sofas to find old loose change, and we melted almost a million one-cent pieces down to have enough material. I just hope Xavier is happy with his likeness.”
Gary Puddlethwaite, a recently relocated risk analyst, was less enthusiastic: “It’s a bit childish, isn’t it, creating a coin to gloat. So Luxembourg isn’t concerned about falling exchange rates, there’s no need to rub it in.”
Purchase of a new coin will cost EU residents 50 cents while U.K. residents, or those with a blue passport, will have to pay around £1.50 plus p&p. U.K. postal terms and conditions are yet to be confirmed.
Contributed by Lowell Stepopoulos
