Four million two-Euro coins have been produced bearing an image created by a Northumbria University student.

Dylan Shields, a final year BA (Hons) Fine Arts student, won a European-wide competition to design an official commemorative two-Euro coin after visiting Holland as part of an Erasmus exchange.

The 27-year-old, who creates detailed sculptures using cardboard and sticky tape, entered the competition with his sculptural reinterpretation of the artist Hans Holbein's portrait of Desiderius Erasmus, the great Dutch humanist and writer of The Praise of Folly � one of the most influential works of western civilisation.

Dylan then created a scan of the sculpture using a rapid prototype printer, provided by Northumbria's School of the Built and Natural Environment and entered it into the competition.

Dylan's concept was chosen from among 60 European artists who were asked to enter the contest, part of the European Commission's celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Euro and European Monetary Union.

He was invited to give a presentation about his entry, and after impressing the competition judges, Dylan reached the final stage, where his work was assessed alongside that of two other finalists.

The Dutch Minister of Finance and the competition commission chose Dylan's work as the winning design, which has now been made into the official commemorative two-Euro coin. The Royal Dutch Mint has now produced four million units of the coin.

Dylan flew to Holland this week to be presented with the first coin to be minted with his design as well as a cash prize.

To read the complete article, see:British student coins new Euro(www.creativeboom.co.uk/north-east/news/
british-student-coins-new-euro/)