France COTY ‘Best Silver’ Coin dated 2017 Wins Top Honors at 2019 Award Gala
The Monnaie de Paris took home the top prize at the 2019 Krause Coin of the Year Awards (COTY). Its French Excellence Guy Savoy coin won “Best Silver Coin” and “Coin of the Year” for coins dated 2017.
The coin is part of the French Excellence series. Each year, the Monnaie de Paris collaborates with a French company to create an intricately designed series of coins. For its coin dated 2017, the mint joined forces with award-winning chef Guy Savoy. Savoy’s restaurant was appointed Best Restaurant in the world and is now housed in the Monnaie de Paris, making the coin series a natural collaboration.
For Savoy, the egg is “the second salt of the earth.” Essential to his cooking, this ingredient inspired the theme for the series. The coins also incorporate the four elements essential to the chef’s alchemical work: fire for cooking, the nourishing earth, water and air.
Designed by Chief Engraver Joachim Jimenez, the award-winning 50€ Silver coin has the shape of a fondue pot with in its center a cooked egg. The reverse is also adorned with the four essential elements to the cook’s alchemical work.
The obverse presents Guy Savoy’s right hand print and is covered with drawings of ingredients used by the cook: the asparagus, a John Dory, an artichoke, and an oyster. On the left side, there is a pile of pots, a reference to the copper ones found in the Chef’s kitchen.
The mintage of the French Excellence Guy Savoy coin was limited to 500. It contains 5 oz of .950 fine Silver. It has a diameter of 50 mm and weighs 163.8 grams. The Mint also made this design as a ¼ ounce gold coin in a 50 Euro denomination with a mintage of 1,000 offered at 519 Euros each; and as a 5 ounce gold coin in a 500 Euro denomination with a mintage of 99 offered at 11,450 Euros each.
The Paris mint honored Guy Savoy with other designs that include an oval shaped 10 Euro silver proof coin with a mintage of 5,000 which sold for 78 Euro; an oval 200 Euro 1 ounce gold coin in the shape of an egg with a mintage of 500 which sold for 2,235 Euro; and a tri color 5,000 Euro gold 1kilo coin in the shape of a cup with a mintage of 11 which sold for 130,000 Euros.