EURO
European Union standard euro coins
Home | National side | France
1 - 50 euro cent, France
The circumference of the coin 12 is located stars. In the center - a collective image of a young, feminine French woman named Marianne - the personification of the Republic, her rebellious spirit. This image was also used on French coins at different times.
Marianne (French Marianne.) - a national symbol and the nickname of France from 1792 (the time of the French Revolution).
Marianne image is inextricably linked with the Great French Revolution and the national motto symbolizes the republican France, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity."
Why the name "Marianne" has become a household name is unknown. The main version is that in the XVIII century in the country were very common female names Marie and Anna, so the Republic, proclaimed liberty, equality and fraternity for all the people, called the popular name of Marie-Anne. It is known that already October 10, 1792 while the popular singer Guillaume Lavabr in their song for the first time named the Republic Marianne.
French National Assembly in September 1792 agreed that the new seal of the state should be the image of a woman standing with a spear on which his head wearing a Phrygian cap. This headpiece is known since the days of the Roman Empire, were freed his slaves, freedmen. Since then, the Phrygian cap became a symbol of freedom.
Thus, Marianne Phrygian cap has also become a symbol of the Free French. Many French painters and sculptors depicted it in his works. One of the most famous works is a painting by Delacroix, "Liberty on the Barricades", written under the influence of the revolution of 1830.
About 1875 Marianne images have been widely disseminated in official institutions: the departments, municipalities, courts. Her profile is placed on the French public printing. It is depicted on French postage stamps, coins and banknotes.
For the national side of the French coins it was considered more than 1,200 sketches. The Commission, chaired by the Minister of Economy and Finance chose three designs for three types of euro coins.
The central image of the coin is the girl-sower. This image was first created for French coins in 1897, the artist-medalist Louis Oscar Roty. Right of the image has vertical stripes on their background - the abbreviation RF (République française). Between the bands - the artist's name «L.JORIO d`ap. O.ROTY ». To the left of the figure there is the year of issue. Following the coin circumference - the EU stars.
1 and 2 euro coins, France
Stylized tree painted by the artist Dzhokvimom Dimenezom (Joaquim Jiminez), symbolizing the continuity of life and development, concluded in a hexagon. Around the tree is the motto of the Republic: «LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ» (liberty, equality, fraternity).
The left and right of the tree trunk is located symbol of the French
Republic (abbreviated RF), at the bottom right edge of the hexagon is a sign of the artist's coins (J.JIMENEZ inscription).
Tree - this is one of the historical symbols of France. The following year, after the French Revolution, in the spring of 1790 in a village in the Rhone valley farmers planted "maypole" and named it the tree of liberty. This tradition spread rapidly throughout France and became part of the major official ceremonies. The bicentennial of the trees there are about sixty thousand in France. The Bastille Day they will decorate tricolor ribbons and red Phrygian cap.
The French often call their country «l`hexagone» (hexagon), as France really looks like the outline of a geometric figure.
A stylized tree contained in a hexagon with the motto Liberty Equality Fraternity.
