French coins anyone?

Bithrate

Did I mention modern? I picked this up from the French mint in Paris a couple years ago. It's a silver-with-a-gold-insert 5 Euro coin and has a max mintage of 3,000 coins. It's called La Semeuse, or "The Sower." Is anyone familiar with this series? What's this coin worth?

lordmarcovan

Ahh, you gotta hand it to those Frenchies. Even their "Modern Crap" is gorgeous.

Bithrate

Yup, I especially like how the map of France creates the hairline of what I'm assuming is Lady Liberty on the reverse.

lordmarcovan

Dang, I totally missed that particular detail, since the map part is "negative space" (black) in the image. Very cool.

I have some older Sowers, of course. Silver 50-centime and 1-franc pieces, from the WW1 era. They've revisited the design a number of times over the years, but with good reason- it's always appealing.

PS- what's all the lettering in the reverse field say?

Bithrate

The French motto - Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.

JimK

I think this is the right one:
France 2004 The Sower (La Semeuse) Walking Liberty 5 Euro Gold & Silver Bi-Metal Proof

Nice design!
Jim

Bithrate

That's definitely the one. I wish I can remember how much I paid for it...

theboz11

Gold Sower

BCNumismatics

Bithrate,
That's one very nice French 5 Euro medal-coin that you've got there.

The Monnaie de Paris no longer strikes coins at Paris.They are now struck in Pessac,which is located in southern France near Bordeaux.

Aidan.

Bithrate

That 20 Euro piece is sweet, theboz!

theboz11

Thanks

SaorAlba

They will soak you if you buy them in the Monnaie de Paris boutique on Quai de Conti, and the smaller boutique in the Louvre annex mall. They have nice stuff and an enormous catalogue of medals and coins, but oh so dearly expensive. I bought a gold 1 Franc coin the last time I was there, and I ended up selling to someone in France a year later for double what I paid for it, but now I kind of wished I had kept the thing.

Hyperion

nice coin! purchased a few from the mint, I can attest to the high prices

I have a silver one that commemorates the abolition of the death penalty... the background design is a very subtle guilottine (spelling) which you dont quite notice

Hyperion

<< <i>nice coin! purchased a few from the mint, I can attest to the high prices

I have a silver one that commemorates the abolition of the death penalty... the background design is a very subtle guilottine (spelling) which you dont quite notice >>




here's the pic