2021 France €20 HIGH RELIEF Silver Proof Coin "The Art of the Pen: Jean de la Fontaine 400 Years"

• Mint: Monnaie de Paris
• Denomination: €20
• Quality: Proof
• Issue limit: 3,000 pcs.
• Alloy: 99.9% Silver
• Diameter: 37 mm=1.46 in
• Weight: 31.1 g= 1 oz
• Box/Capsule: Yes/Yes
• Certificate: Yes

Additional Information

Please click here for an external web page in English!

This is the inaugural coin in the new series celebrating literary styles and authors who have marked the history of literature in France and abroad.

This first coin pays tribute to Jean de La Fontaine, the great French fabulist and member of the Académie française, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his birth.

Through his texts, Jean de la Fontaine still fascinates us today by using animals to represent the great traits of human character.

Dedicated to the Dauphin Louis of France, Jean de la Fontaine leaves us a literary legacy of more than 250 fables as well as numerous collections of stories and poems.

On the obverse, the portrait of Jean de La Fontaine is shown in profile. In the background, some of the animals in his famous fables blend in with his hair: the frog and the ox, the stork, the wolf, the raven and the fox, the cicada and the ant and finally the turtle.

We can also see the castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte, a reference to his friendship with Nicolas Fouquet, the owner of the castle at the time. His dates and the name of Jean de La Fontaine, as well as the coat of arms of Château-Thierry, his birthplace where he spent part of his life and which inspired the animals in his fables, are engraved to the right of the drawing.

The reverse is common to the entire "Art of the Pen" series." Several emblematic quotations are inscribed on it, such as Voltaire’s “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien", Dane Alighieri's "Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch'intrate", William Shakespeare's "To be or not to be: that is the question" or Nietzsche's "Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker".

A feather is engraved in the center of the coin and underneath the title of the serie.