The Face of Madame Curie from Poland to Be Engraved on French 50 Cent Coin

Paris Mint Unveils New Coin Designs
Featuring Simone Veil, Josephine Baker, and Marie Curie
Veil on 10 Cents, Baker on 20 Cents, Curie on 50 Cents

The Paris Mint, which mints French coins, has unveiled new coin designs featuring the faces of prominent female figures such as Simone Veil, Josephine Baker, and Marie Curie. These three women are among the seven women interred in the Pantheon, the hall of fame for French heroes.

On the 6th (local time), the Paris Mint stated, "These three outstanding women will be a daily source of inspiration for everyone." Simone Veil, regarded as a symbol of French women's rights and European integration, will be engraved on the front of the 10-cent coin. She was appointed Minister of Health during President Val?ry Giscard d'Estaing's administration and passed the law legalizing abortion in 1974, becoming a symbolic figure of 'women's rights progress' worldwide. She also served as the first elected President of the European Parliament for three years starting in 1979.

New coin designs unveiled on the 6th by the Paris Mint in France. Simone Veil (top), Josephine Baker, and Marie Curie will be engraved on the obverse of the 10-cent, 20-cent, and 50-cent coins, respectively. [Image source=Yonhap News Agency·Paris Mint social media]

The face on the 20-cent coin is Josephine Baker. She was a singer and dancer who also served in the French Resistance during World War II. Baker, an African American singer from the United States, moved to Paris, France at the age of 19 and obtained French citizenship. When World War II broke out, she joined the French Resistance. Josephine used her fame as a public figure to work as a spy and lent her home as a hideout for French guerrilla fighters.

The 50-cent coin features Marie Curie, who made pioneering contributions to radioactivity research by discovering radium. Born in Poland, Marie Curie jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre Curie for their research on radium, and later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alone in 1911. She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize and remains the only woman to have won Nobel Prizes twice.

The new coins are expected to gradually circulate by this summer. Among euro coins, the front side, which features national symbols, can be replaced every 15 years, unlike the back side, which displays the denomination.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.