2 euro coins Spain 2005, 400th anniversary of the first edition of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote de La Mancha

2 euro coins Spain 2005 Cervantes Don Quixote





€2 commemorative coins - Spain 2005, 400th anniversary of the first edition of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote de La Mancha.

Commemorative 2 euro coins from Spain

Subject of commemoration: 4th centenary of the first edition of Miguel de Cervantes’ 'The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'

Description of the design: The centre of the coin features an image of Don Quixote holding a lance, with windmills in the background. To the left, impressed into the surface of the coin, is the word 'ESPAÑA', under which the mintmark 'M' appears. The 12 stars of the European Union are shown in the outer ring of the coin, with four of them impressed into the surface. The year of issue is indicated at the bottom.



Issuing volume: 8 million coins
Issuing date: April 2005
Face value: 2 euro
Diameter: 25.75 mm
Weight: 8.50 g
Alloy: Bimetal: CuNi, nordic gold
Quality: Proof, BU, UNC

Don Quixote de La Mancha
Don Quixote, fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha), is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It follows the adventures of Alonso Quixano, an hidalgo who reads so many chivalric novels that he decides to set out to revive chivalry, under the name Don Quixote. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, who often employs a unique, earthly wit in dealing with Don Quixote's rhetorical orations on antiquated knighthood. Don Quixote is met by the world as it is, initiating such themes as intertextuality, realism, metatheatre, and literary representation.
Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. It has had major influence on the literary community, as evidenced by direct references in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers (1844) and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright.
His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered to be the first modern European novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written. His influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). He was dubbed El Príncipe de los Ingenios ("The Prince of Wits").