2025 France – Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon 10€ Silver Proof

Description

In 2021, Monnaie de Paris inaugurated a series focused on literary styles and authors who have marked literature history in France and abroad. After celebrating poetry in 2021, theatre in 2022 and adventure novels in 2024, Monnaie de Paris honours a science fiction author in 2025: Jules Verne, for the 120^th anniversary of his passing.

On the obverse, 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 titles De la terre à la lune and Autour de la lune are in the centre, with the author’s name inside the moon and the yeardate at the bottom.

The reverse side 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. The acronym RF appears in the lower part of the coin, along with the hallmark of Joaquin Jimenez and the engraving workshop.