The Jean Sibelius collector coin represents Finnishness at its most profound. It is a beautiful and touching gift with a place in the home of any Finnish person or music lover of any nationality.

The collector coin's obverse depicts the starry sky of Ainola and a copse of pine trees, among which Sibelius was often seen lost in thought. The reverse bears the neck of a violin, the composer's favoured instrument.

The collector coin struck in honour of the 150th anniversary year of Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) commemorates the master composer's remarkable oeuvre and influence on the Finnish national character and Finnish classical music. The Sibelius collector coin touches every Finn and represents a piece of Finnishness to people of other nationalities.

Ireland will issue a 15 Euro coin in honour of its Nobel Prize winner, Ernest Walton. Walton, with John Douglas Cockcroft, shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work on the transmutation of a nucleus by artificially accelerated atomic particles. The design on the coin gives an artist’s impression and explanation to the equation we all know, E=mc2.