In 2024, to celebrate the reopening to the public of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral after five years of restoration, Monnaie de Paris is partnering with this masterpiece of Gothic architecture to strike a collection of coins of excellence.
Since the Middle Ages, the builders of cathedrals have been legends of craftsmanship, their prowess having shaped the history of construction and architecture. Through this collection, a genuine dialogue is being established between the ‘numismatic conservatory’ and the ‘heritage conservatory’. Each institution brings its own history, its own trades and its own ancestral skills handed down through the centuries.
The obverse of this exceptional coin shows Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in its purest form. Rather than contenting itself with a rectangular shape that is faithful to the structure of the building, Monnaie de Paris wanted to pay tribute to the Gothic style of the cathedral by using the contours of an ogival bay decorated with quatrefoils. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s reconstructed spire forms the mullion of the bay and fits in perfectly with the dynamic of the design, revealing at the top the new statue of the rooster created during the reconstruction work.
The ogive-shaped bay also evokes the cathedral’s stained-glass windows, another distinctive feature of the Gothic architectural style. To pay homage to the flamboyance of Notre-Dame’s rose windows, a gold insert enameled in high fire has been inserted at the top of the mullion so that its iridescent light radiates over the cathedral until it is insculpted into the field of the coin. The face value of this coin is inscribed in the façade of the cathedral, as is the year commemorating the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris to the public.
The reverse side takes us inside the cathedral. Here we see the completely renovated heart, revealing the new liturgical furnishings in the nave. Overlooking the vaulted ceiling, the Notre-Dame framework is inserted into the top of the mullion, revealing a complex interlocking of trusses, triangular wooden structures supporting the cathedral roof. The framework here is a faithful representation of the new framework of the Gothic cathedral, itself rebuilt identically and with the same craftsmanship as the building’s original framework.
This coin is presented in a solid oak case, decorated with a reproduction of the West rose window of Notre-Dame. The two doors of the case open cathedral-style to reveal the coin at its heart on a promontory, set in the center of a reduction of truss no. 7. This oak piece is a homothetic reduction of the truss of the roof structure of Notre-Dame, made from the same wood used by the craftsmen on the restauration site.
