2025 France – Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas 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.

The obverse 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. The title of the novel, Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, is inscribed on top, and the yeardate and the author’s name are written on the bottom left and right.

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.