Monnaie de Paris celebrates fall of Berlin Wall
This Nov. 9 marks the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. To commemorate the historic occasion, Monnaie de Paris has issued a spectacular group of three gold…
This Nov. 9 marks the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. To commemorate the historic occasion, Monnaie de Paris has issued a spectacular group of three gold and three silver euros. These are the first coins in a new MdP series: “Great Dates in The History of Humanity.”
The Berlin Wall group are led by highly imaginative silver €10 (37.00 mm, 22.20 g .900 fine) and gold €200 (37.00 mm, 31.104 g .999 fine) proofs. Both provide an optical illusion. Both are struck on flat flans but are ingeniously designed so they appear as a 3D, L-shaped section taken from the Wall tagged BERLIN.
The obverse provides an apt allegory of the Fall. A German soldier holding a rose appears to step through the Wall. Below the legend reads 30 JAHRE MAUERFALL (30 years of Fallen Wall).
The reverse continues the tagging theme with the denomination and the legend: 30 ANS DE LA CHUTE DU MUR DE BERLIN 1989-2019 (30 years since Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989-2019).
Mintages are 500 gold and 3,000 silver.
The same L-shaped designs – including the legends – appear on regular .999 fine gold round proofs: a €5 (11 mm, 0.5 g) and a €50 (22.00 mm, 7.780 g).
On the obverse, the wall section is backed by the Brandenburg Gate, previously within East Germany, and, as ever, crowned by Victory driving her quadriga. At the right, Berlin’s Bear gives the wall a shove.
Towering high on the reverse is West Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, symbol of the 1948 Berlin Airlift aka Operation Vittles. Berlin’s Bear now pushes from the left.
Mintage are 3,000 and 5,000 respectively.
The focus of the designs of a BU silver €10 (31.00 mm, 17.00 g) and a BU €100 (47.00 mm, 50.00 g) is on the excitement of the day the Wall finally fell. On the obverse, a crowd of waving Germans rush into a breach through the heavily tagged Wall while doves fly above. On the reverse, linked branches of oak and laurel form the euro symbol and represent Franco-German friendship.
Mintages are 100,000 and 10,000 respectively.
In case any reader is a little confused by the design concept of the L-shaped coins, there is a YouTube video to help make things clear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRaFs854qYQ&t=4s.
All coins are presently available from Monnaie de Paris on-line shop at https://www.monnaiedeparis.fr/en/shop.
This article was originally printed in World Coin News. >> Subscribe today.
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