2025 France – Jules Verne: Journey to the Center of the Earth 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, 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 title of the book is in the centre of the coin, with the date and author’s name 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.