Contemporary French Silver Bullion

 Contemporary French Silver Bullion typically have a 90% silver content.  Currently the Paris Mint or “Monnaie De Paris” has over forty silver coins available from 2012 through 2009. There are two coin being 50% silver and eleven that are 95% silver.  The Paris Mint has divided their silver bullion into seven different design categories: Money and Currency, Europe, History, Geography, Art and Culture, Sports, and Youth.

Probably the best known iconic figures of French currency is the “SOWER” or “LA SEMEUSE” and this was redesigned in 2004 for the Euro and the Paris mint has been using it ever since.  The original Sower was designed by Oscar Roty in 1897 for the 1898 one franc silver coin.  The One Franc silver coin is 23 millimeters in diameter weighing 5 grams and composed of an 83.5% silver with 16.5% copper alloy containing a total of 0.1342 oz of silver.  These were produced from 1898-1920.  This art nouveau design inspired the design for the United States Walking Liberty Half Dollar.  The first use of the Sower for the Euro was on the 1.5 Euro dollar today the Sower is on the ten Euro dollar.  These current silver “Sowers” are 47 millimeters in diameter and weigh 22.20 grams of 90% silver.  These are available in Proof state.

2012 Ten euro hercules

Another silver coin in the Money and Currency category is a redesign of “HERCULES”.  This silver coin is from the “Money and Currency” collection.  The Hercules design first appeared on the Five Francs in 1848 and 1849 and then again from 1871 through 1940.  These were designed by Augustine Dupre they are 37 millimeters in diameter and weigh 25 grams of a 90% silver alloy consisting of 22.5 grams (0.7234 oz) of silver.  Then in 1965 through 1973 the French used the Hercules on the Ten Francs and despite of silver’s rising prices this coin is the same weight and measure of it predecessors.  Hercules also graced the Fifty Francs silver coin in 1974 through 1980.  These are 41 millimeters in diameter, weigh 30 grams and again 90% silver containing 27 grams of silver.  Only the 2012 ten euro Hercules is available from the Paris mint now.  It was designed by Joaquim Jimenez and is 29 millimeters in diameter weighing 10 grams of a 50% silver alloy and is also available in Proof condition.

There are a number of oversized coins and these are minted using the 95% silver alloy.  The largest of these is in the Youth series; “XIII” which depicts a popular comic XIII which is based in the USA and the main character who is amnesiac.  This silver coin is 75 millimeters in diameter and weighs 327.60 grams.  Five hundred of these one hundred euro dollar coins were minted in 2011.  There are also six other 95% silver coins at the 50 euro denomination which are 5 ounces (or 163.80 grams) which are 50 millimeters in diameter.  One of these is in the Europe series, the 2010 “Centre Georges Pomidow”.  This coin ties in with the “Europa Star” series in which each European country issues a coin commemorating major European architectural work.  In 1977 the former French President’s vision of having a public museum in the heart of Paris for the display of full range of modern and contemporary arts was realized.


The Art and Culture series not only has coins commemorating various literary characters, there are also five euro silver coins depicting the Chinese zodiac animals.  These are 47 millimeters in diameter and weigh 22.20 grams of the 90% silver alloy.  Bars have also been introduced commemorating some of the most influential modern artist; Claude Monet, Vassily Kandinsky, Georges Braque, Auguste Renoir, and Pablo Picasso, to name those that are still available from the Paris Mint.  These each include an etching of one of the artist’s renowned work on the obverse and the reverse has a head of the artist with a reproduction of their signature and the years of their life.  These are 15 grams of the 90% silver alloy.

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