I was looking at my copy of Belgium 2010 5 cents the other day when I realized that the common face and the national face were not pointing up in the same way. There seemed to be a small rotation. This phenomenon does happen from time to time and, as I understand, is usually regarded as an error. So did I have a rare error coin or were all the Belgium 2010 5 cents accidently made this way? Unfortunately I only have one of these coins so I couldn't compare.
Being a cynical fellow I started to think, "I wouldn't put it past the Belgian mint to get this wrong all the time."
So I took grabbed all the Belgian €2 coins I could find and found that five of them where dated 2000. I regard this as a random sample. I lined them up and stuck them down with tape. I used the bottom edge of the "2" as a guide to make sure they were all orientated in the same way. (Not very scientific, I know.)
Then I carefully turned them over…
Best here is to look at the monogram to the right of the king's head.
From left to right:
1st looks upright, head up straight and the "A" in the monogram looks correct.
2nd is rotated left
3rd looks straight
4th is rotated left but not as much as the 2nd
5th looks upright
I had a quick look at the other Belgian €2 I have:
1x 2002 rotated
2x 2003 OK, OK
1x 2006 rotated
1x 2008 OK
I have found other denominations with the same phenomenon: 10c, 20c, and 50c. It seems to occur with all years and all series and the rotation is always left. I have not found it on a €1 yet.
Does anybody know what, in the production process, causes this to happen?
Have a look at the coins in your wallet. Do other mints have this problem as well?
(Sorry this forum restricts the size of the images you can upload. I had to scale my images down. If you want to see larger, clearer images pm me with your e-mail adress and I will mail them to you.)

