2024 France €10 Silver Proof Coin - The Art of the Quill: Alexandre Dumas

• Mint: Monnaie de Paris
• Denomination: €10
• Quality: Proof
• Issue limit: 5,000 pcs.
• Alloy: 99.9% Silver
• Diameter: 37 mm
• Weight: 22.2 grams
• Box/Capsule: Yes/Yes
• Certificate: Yes

Additional Information

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The series Art of the Quill focuses on authors who have marked literature history in France and abroad. After celebrating Jean de La Fontaine and Dante Alighieri in 2021, and Shakespeare and Molière in 2022, the time has now come to honor Alexandre Dumas in 2024, for the 180th anniversary of the publication of The Three Musketeers.

The Three Musketeers is undeniably Alexandre Dumas' most famous work. This captivating novel follows the adventures of D'Artagnan, an ambitious young Gascon, who travels to Paris to become a musketeer for King Louis XIII. (Gascons were traditionally said to be braggarts and boasters as well as impetuous). In Paris he befriends Athos, Porthos and Aramis, three seasoned musketeers, and together they become embroiled in political intrigue, exciting duels and dangerous plots.

The obverse depicts Alexandre Dumas facing his iconic characters - the Musketeers. They seem to have turned against him, pointing their swords at the author's nose. The famous phrase from the novel is inscribed on Dumas's shoulder: "One for all, and all for one".

The reverse is common to the entire "Art of the Quill" series. Several iconic quotations can be read, such as Voltaire’s “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien", Dante Alighieri’s "Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch'intrate", William Shakespeare’s "To be or not to be : that is the question" and Nietzsche’s "Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker". A feather is engraved in the center of the coin and underneath is the title of the series.