The poet’s birth will be celebrated by limited edition silver €15 euro coins, a collector’s item.
Only 8,000 of these coins have been specially minted.
A coin consists of the poet himself, his hair intertwining with bees and linnets, an ode to a line from one of his most well known poems “The Lake Isle of Inisfree”.
Des Geraghty, Central Bank Comission member had this special event launched in Dublin, at the Abbey Theatre. Symbolic as the poet himself helped to establish it.
Mr Geraghty stated “This coin honours the Irish poet and one of the foremost figure of 20th century literature William Butler Yeats”.
He went on to say “Yeats was central to the creation of both our first National Theatre and our first national coinage and one could hardly think of a more appropriate place to launch a coin celebrating his birth than the Abbey Theatre”.