National designs were not allowed to change until the end of 2008, unless a monarch (whose portrait usually appears on the coins) dies or abdicates.

As the EU's membership has since expanded in 2004 and 2007, with further expansions envisaged, the common face of all euro coins from the value of 10 cent and above were redesigned in 2007 to show a new map.

However, new national coin designs were added: in 2007 for Slovenia; in 2008 for Cyprus and Malta; in 2009 for Slovakia; in 2011 for Estonia; in 2014 for Latvia; in 2015 for Lithuania; and in 2023 for Croatia.

Six fine lines cut diagonally behind the globe from each side of the coin and have twelve stars at their ends (reflective of the flag of Europe).

All must include twelve stars (in most cases a circle around the edge), the engraver's initials, and the year of issue.

The one- and two-cent coins were initially introduced to ensure that the transition to the euro was not used as an excuse by retailers to heavily round up prices.

However, due to the cost of maintaining a circulation of low-value coins by business and the mints, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovakia round prices to the nearest five cent (Swedish rounding) if paying by cash, while producing only a handful of those coins for collectors, rather than general circulation.

[5] According to a 2021 Eurobarometer survey of citizens across the Eurozone, 67% of respondents were in favor of the removal of the 1 and 2 cent coins and rounding of prices; with over 75% in Finland, Ireland, Italy and Slovakia.