Nowadays our euro coins are no longer made of gold, but of copper, nickel, iron and the like. A two euro piece is no longer worth 2 euros in pure metal value. English pennies are made of pure copper and a while ago they were actually worth less than the metal they were made of because the price of copper was so high!
The EU's 1, 2 and 5 cent coins are made of iron with a copper coating. The 10, 20 and 50 cent pieces are made from so-called “Nordic gold”, an alloy made of copper, aluminum, zinc and tin. Our 1 and 2 Euro coins are some of the only bimetallic coins in the world and consist of a center and a ring. The central pieces are each made of nickel and coated with different alloys to appear gold (nickel-brass) or silver (copper-nickel). The outer rings are made of solid nickel-brass or cupronickel.
