BRUSSELS, Feb 25, 2008 (AFP) - The EU Commission on Monday unveiled the winning 'primitive' design for a commemorative coin to be issued next year to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the common European currency.

The two-euro (three-dollar) coin bears the image of a cave-painting style stick man holding the common currency's 'e' emblem. The design, created by Greek central bank craftsman George Stamatopolos, was chosen, from five options, via a public Internet vote in which over 140.000 EU citizens took part.

The chosen coin, with what the Commission called its 'deliberately primitive design', will be launched throughout the 15-nation eurozone next January to mark the official birth of the euro on January 1, 1999 -- though euro coins and notes were not issued until 2002.

The winning design 'goes back to the time when there was a bartering system between Europeans and takes that idea forward towards economic and monetary union,' said European Commission spokeswoman on economic and monetary affairs Amelia Torres.

The commemorative coin will be only the second to be issued throughout the eurozone.

The first was another two-euro piece, the largest denomination coin, issued last year to mark 50 years since the signing of the EU's founding Treaty of Rome.

All other euro coins are issued by individual member states.