United Kingdom Ecu Tokens 1992

The story behind these is murky, but from what I understand, they were privately produced by the same people who produce the 'pattern' Euro sets for non-Euro EU countries each year (Poland, etc.) - I cant remember the trading name at the moment, but I believe that they are based in Germany? All of this is done with some buy-in or knowledge of the purported issuing authorities, ie: they pay royalties and avoid anything that might get them in trouble by too closely approximating circulating coinage. Its been a while since I looked into it, so this is all from memory, but that is the gist. By the by, there is a silver proof set of this issue (yours is the base metal UNC set).

The technical term for such pieces is "unofficial patterns" or "private patterns". They have no government authority, permission or sanction. In some jurisdictions (such as Canada), they would be considered "counterfeits" and thus illegal to buy and sell. In Britain, so long as the coin's design does not resemble too closely any currently-existing British coin design, they are legal.

Unofficial patterns were produced for various reasons. Some were produced as part of a serious lobbying effort, to try to persuade the government to issue actual coins of the same or similar type. The famous "Petition crown" produced by Thomas Simon in 1663, and the bimetallic "pattern pennies" of Thomas Moore in the 1840s, are two historic examples in the British series.

Other unofficial patterns are made simply for sale to collectors. The Edward VIII "pattern crowns" that have proliferated since the 1950s, numerous "essais" from the French Mint, and these "pattern ecus" issued in the name of various EU member-states prior to the actual introduction of the euro, are all typical examples of this latter category.