Ireland 2026 2€ U2

2 euro U2

Ireland decided to honor one of the country's most famous bands and, suddenly, we have Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. on a coin.

U2 was formed in Dublin in 1976, when Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. were still teenagers. The first meeting took place in Larry's kitchen, after he placed an advertisement looking for musicians at school. Who would have thought that these kids would sell more than 170 million albums worldwide, win 22 Grammys and be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005? U2 is a unique band, who left Dublin to conquer the world and are the only band to have placed an album at the top of the Billboard 200 in four consecutive decades.

2 euro Gulbenkian

The €2 Gulbenkian coin honors Calouste Gulbenkian, one of the most remarkable figures in Portuguese culture and arts. The national design features, in the center, a carriage pulled by four horses, the symbol of the Foundation, surrounded by the inscriptions "CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN FOUNDATION" and "ART, CHARITY, SCIENCE, EDUCATION".

Calouste Gulbenkian

Calouste Gulbenkian was born in 1869 in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) and distinguished himself as a businessman in the oil sector, an art collector, and a patron.

He settled in Lisbon in 1942, where he lived until his death in 1955.

He left behind in Portugal an extraordinary art collection and a large part of his fortune, giving rise to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, one of the most important cultural institutions in the country.