“It snows! it snows! from out the sky, the feathered flakes, how fast they fly. Like little birds that don’t know why, they’re on the chase, from place to place, while neither can the other trace. It snows! It snows! a merry play is o’er us, on this heavy day!” Yet beneath the seemingly chaotic nature of snowfall, so beautifully captured by American poet Hannah Flagg Gould (1789–1865), lies a surprising symmetry.

Stony Coral, the fifth 3-euro coin in the Luminous Marine Life series, transports you right into the most species-rich of marine habitats – the coral reef. This is because stony corals use themselves as material to build fantastic living worlds where other sea creatures also thrive, including the clownfish, with its bright orange body and three black-edged white stripes.

Like all the coins in The Language of Flowers series, The Chamomile features an imprint of real flowers. Faithful to the tiniest detail, they are pressed using a special technique that captures them in their natural state. In the language of flowers, chamomile signifies ‘strength in difficult situations’ and ‘energy in adversity”. This makes perfect sense given chamomile’s numerous healing and magical properties, uplifting scent and delightful daisy-like flowers.