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 Replies: 11 / Views: 6,190 |
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Valued Member
United States
185 Posts |
I have my first french coin and need to know just one thing. Whose image is on the obverse facing the left? I figured out that it says 'French Republic' on the front and is made from aluminum bronze and has a rooster above a laurel branch (still have to figure out the significance of that), and that the reverse says 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. But I can't figure out the image  ... can someone please help me?!?! |
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Moderator
 Australia
16806 Posts |
The lady in question is Marianne, basically the French version of Lady Liberty. Used as a symbol of France since the Revolution. The Gallic Rooster is an older symbol of France, used since the middle ages (though not on coins until much later). It's apparently a Latin play on words: "Gallus" means both "someone from Gaul" and "rooster". (edited for temporal clarification) Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Edited by Sap
08/27/2007 02:19 am
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Valued Member
France
285 Posts |
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Valued Member
Ireland
498 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2217 Posts |
I concur: good info, never knew it wasn't Liberty but a personification of Liberty and Reason according to the wiki' article linked to..
Edited by NumisMattyUk
08/27/2007 07:15 am
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Valued Member
Ireland
498 Posts |
I dont know,but a gift a statue of liberty I think was made in france and a smaller statue is in france looking to the west for its bigger version is in the US. http://www.nps.gov/stlihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_LibertyThats new, the workers pour silver coins when they are putting the last mason. And during world war II they melted most of the statue,I wonder where in france they are located the workers might put some coins on its foundation  |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2217 Posts |
I think the Statue of Liberty was gifted by France after the Americans won the War of Independence as a rebuke to those evil Brits who had beaten them in Canada.
Edited by NumisMattyUk
08/27/2007 11:58 am
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
2078 Posts |
According to french sites the first female figure on a coin was by Augustin Durpre in 1795 quote:
Creee par Augustin Dupre en 1795, elle s'inspire de Minerve, deesse de l'intelligence et de la sagesse,
inspired by Minerva goddess of intelligence A picture of the first one is halfway down attached site The second pic is the gold 20 fr version The third is influenced by the grain sawing girl designed by Roty http://www.numismatpro.com/Ressourc...Marianne.htm |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
G'day,
The coin mentioned at the start of this thread is No.880 in Gadoury. The series was produced each year from 1950 to 1954, and in 1958. They were demonetized in 1966. The lady appears on the 10 & 20 Franc coins of the same era.
In earlier coins, Marianne is depicted wearing a cap - "the cap of liberty" (the Phrygian cap or "Bonnet Phrygien") which also appears on some American coins.
A similar looking, but cap-less, lady appeared on the gold 20 Franc coins of 1898 to 1914. Gadoury calls her Marianne also. However, a lot of collectors call the uncapped lady "Cerès" (Harvest goddess): those coins had a similar reverse to your 1953 50 Franc. But, Gadoury calls the capless lady on the gold 20F coins of 1849, 50, & 51, Ceres.
I get a bit confused, because later French coins (1959~2001) feature a walking lady "Semeuse" (the sower), who seems to be wearing Marianne's cap.
The cap, by way of a digression, was a potent symbol in its day. The English Radicals of 1819~1820 (Henry HUNT, et al.) wore a white cap on public occasions, such as Peterloo. Didn't help them much, but ...
Peter in Oz
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Valued Member
 United States
185 Posts |
Wow! Thanks for the information everybody. I've included some pictures for everyone!   This is part of my grandfather's collection, now mine, in a way. From what I can tell he worked at a gas station in some fashion for a while and pulled this out of circulation there. You don't really find things like this floating around anymore... |
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
2078 Posts |
there are 3 totally different women figures
Marianne in many forms like I said by
augustin Dupre
I read somewhere the cap is the sympbol of a free ex slave (Rome ?)
Then there is Cerès the goddess you described
Then the is the grain sawing girl from Roty for which a poet has written the caption " I will saw in all weather "
Je sème à tout vent
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
2078 Posts |
Halfway down the link 1848 there is a 20 francs Cerès Near the end up till 1914 the Marianne 20 francs was made The saweress never made it to an old 20 francs in gold but Monnaie de Paris has made several contemporary goldcoins http://www.cpror.com/cprorGB/index5.htmSince I am between computers I cannot generate jpegs without spaces and my entire file system is full of spaces and french lettres ( my old photoprogram refuses to download jpegs on xp) |
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Replies: 11 / Views: 6,190 |
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Posted 08/27/2007 05:23 am
