Claude Monet, 1 Dollar, Series: Painters of the World

The “Painters of the World” is an international, unique series of silver collector coins, launched in 2006.

The mintage of the coin is limited to 15,000 pieces and was struck on a silver blank of Ag 925.

Obverse:
The central part of the coin, produced using the pad printing technique, depicts the painting “Woman with an Umbrella” – one of the best known paintings by Claude Monet. To the left: a vertical inscription “Niue Island ”, at the bottom - an image of the Queen Elizabeth II and underneath it the Mint’s mark: “MW”. Under  the likeness of the painting to the right, the issue year: 2010 and the nominal value of the coin:1$. (Dollar).

Reverse:
To the left: a portrait of Claude Monet. Next to it, to the right an inscription: “1840-1925” (the artist’s birth and death dates). In the central part a painting by Monet, the Japanese Bridge. Above a stylized inscription: Claude Monet.

Coin designer: Robert Kotowicz

Claude Monet was a French painter who lived between 1840-1926. He was born in Paris, and spent his childhood at Le Havre, where he sold numerous caricatures of the city’s inhabitants. His future was greatly influenced by the meeting in 1856 with a Norman painter Eugene Boudin, who introduced Monet to the world of paints. During the prime of his painting abilities the public often mistook his name for a similar sounding name of Manet, the author of the scandalous Olympia, much admired by Monet.

The initial works by Monet did not enjoy great popularity. However, it is from the name of one of his paintings, Impression, Sunrise, that the entire movement took its name. The first to coin the term Impressionism was the critic Louis Leroy who, in his satiric review, attacked and ridiculed Monet’s work displayed at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. It was years later that the revolutionary painting technique developed by Monet and a group of other Impressionists triumphed over the ossified academism. This is when his financial problems came to an end and he could peacefully spend the rest of his life painting in his own garden.

The biggest works of art by Monet include: “Boulevard Des Capucines”, “Saint-Lazare Train Station”, “Impression, Sunrise”, “Woman with a Parasol Umbrella and Small Child”, “Woman with a Parasol”, ”Women in the Garden”, „Red Poppies at Argenteuil”, “Bridge at Argenteuil”, “Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbour, Le Havre”.