2025 France 4 x €10 Silver Proof Coins - The Art of the Quill: Jules Verne's Most Famous Novels

• Mint: Monnaie de Paris
• Denomination: 4 x €10
• Quality: Proof
• Issue limit: 4 x 2,500 pcs.
• Alloy: 99.9% Silver
• Diameter: 37 mm=1.46 in each
• Weight: 22.2 g=0.78 oz each
• Box/Capsule: Yes/Yes
• Certificate: Yes

Additional Information

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This collection of four silver proof coins each features one of Jules Verne's Most Famous Novels: Around the World in Eighty Days, From the Earth to the Moon, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

On the obverse of the coin for Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg is in the foreground in his hot air balloon, accompanied by Jean Passepartout, his faithful French valet, and Mrs Aouda, the young widow he saved. A number of elements help place the work in context, notably Big Ben, symbolizing the point of departure and arrival of this adventure. The watch at the top illustrates the urgent nature of the journey, emphasising that Phileas Fogg is in a race against time to win his wager.

On the obverse of the coin for From the Earth to the Moon, a shell stands on the left, a reference to De la terre à la lune. On the right, the team observes the moon from their orbiting shell, a reference to Autour de la lune. They include Impey Barbicane, Michel Ardan (an anagram of Nadar, a friend of Jules Verne), Captain Nicholl, the dog Diane, and one of the chickens on board the spacecraft.

The obverse of the coin for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas features emblematic elements from the novel Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, evoking the underwater world imagined by Verne. Captain Nemo, aboard the famous Nautilus, is in the centre, behind the tentacles of a giant squid. Beneath the shark, three divers advance in search of treasure. In the background, the wreck of an ancient ship symbolises the characters' underwater adventures.

Finally, On the obverse of the coin for Journey to the Center of the Earth, an imposing prehistoric monster is in the foreground. Right behing, Professor Otto Lidenbrock stares intently at the horizon. In the centre, the raft sailing the ‘Lindenbrock Sea’ almost collides with two duelling sea creatures. The characters in this fictional story, evolving in a mineral universe, are represented on the right. On the left, a reference to the runic characters that guided the adventurers to the entrance of the Sneffels volcano is inscribed in a giant mushroom. In the background is the Italian volcano Stromboli, through which the explorers emerged from the centre of the Earth.

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” or Nietzsche’s “Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich starker”. A feather is engraved in the center of the coin and underneath is the title of the series.