From Artwork to coin or medal

[Paint Your Wagon]

First is Leda Atomica by Salvador Dali 1949
The painting is in Figueras museum (his birthplace)
The woman is reported to be Dali's wife

Leda and the swan are expressed from the view of nuclear phisics
The expression in the painting is that everything floats above the earth
even death itself only floats above the  earth

[Paint Your Wagon]

10 Euro Spain 27 grams 0.925 silver 40 mm
Leda Atomica
2004 at 25 000 pcs proof ribbed
Salvador Dali
Cost ; too much ; 38.50 euro cause I speak german and I asked a vendor selling in germany only very nicely I could bid 
I spend 4 hours in photoshop to get the background radials 

[Paint Your Wagon]

Salvador himself I cannot help it but his moustaches are in real life on the coin blinding
with and without magnification and of course I was not going to spend another four hours on his side
of the coin
I normally do not like the other side of any coin 


If anybody can tell me what those ants are doing there be welcome 

[TKO]

Well, this really got my goose.... Anyone else?

[scottishmoney]

Honestly I like the coin better than the art, but I am more in favour of Classical, Neo-Classical, and Art Nouveau.

[Paint Your Wagon]

Whilst the coin design is perfectly executed the realisation by the Spanish mint comes nowhere near the coin surface quality Monnae de Paris churns out regularly . But it came in a big blue box as compensation  and a carton wrapper with the painting on it . Then the Germans with their grundlichkeit provided a German flyer explaining what it is all about 

( Of course I bought it in Germany  )

[TwoShadows]

Tried to find a Leda and Swan on our Ebay but had no luck! Have to admit it is an unusual design which would fit good into my collection. Mintage is a bit higher than I would have prefered but 25,000 is not too high a number. Will keep my eyes out for it.

[EgCollector]

I admire Dali's art.

Leda and the swan are expressed from the view of nuclear phisics
The expression in the painting is that everything floats above the earth
even death itself only floats above the  earth

Where excatly is death in this painting?

[EgCollector]

Do any body see the lamb on the Swans chest under the left wing?

Or is it just me 
bwcause i learned to always look for hidden thing in Dali's work

[Humpybong]

I see the lamb as well, and I have not had a single drink tonight.

[Triggersmob]

Do any body see the lamb on the Swans chest under the left wing?

Or is it just me 
bwcause i learned to always look for hidden thing in Dali's work

Would not have noticed if you hadn't mentioned it.

[EgCollector]

This answers my second question, still the first not answered

Where excatly is death in this painting? 

[Paint Your Wagon]

This answers my second question, still the first not answered

Where excatly is death in this painting? 

In the conception of the painting Dali seems to have said that nothing touches the earth not even death
So it is the reason why everything floats but I do not think you will see death as it is a design concept expressed by Dali

Thank you for the lamb though since I am more acquainted with Rubens and Van Gogh and Breughel and even Picasso
I do not think I now much about Dali

[Paint Your Wagon]

Tried to find a Leda and Swan on our Ebay but had no luck! Have to admit it is an unusual design which would fit good into my collection. Mintage is a bit higher than I would have prefered but 25,000 is not too high a number. Will keep my eyes out for it.

The search name is Leda Atomica and I did a worldwide search and to my surprise none are for sale whilst a week ago there were 7 on germany alone
I think with the low Silver and Gold price no ebayer wants to put a coin on that goes three times the price of silver

I got certificate 3435 

[Paint Your Wagon]

This guy is selling the guinuine article under the name of Leda
Germany only and no paypal

http://cgi.ebay.de/10-Euro-Spanien-2004-Dali-Leda-PP_W0QQitemZ260223407379QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260223407379

[EgCollector]

This answers my second question, still the first not answered

Where excatly is death in this painting? 

In the conception of the painting Dali seems to have said that nothing touches the earth not even death
So it is the reason why everything floats but I do not think you will see death as it is a design concept expressed by Dali

Thank you for the lamb though since I am more acquainted with Rubens and Van Gogh and Breughel and even Picasso
I do not think I now much about Dali

I think if this lamb is meant to be by Dali, this lamb resembels death. As far as i know the lamb has been used as a symbol of death in some religeons. You can see that it is drawn inside the swan and as a part of its wing "Death floats"
WOW, if i my interpretation is right. 
I think this deserves a google search about this painting.   

[Paint Your Wagon]

Home of the sculpture

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/index.html

The daughters of Zeus
The three graces by Canova

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/08/hm88_0_1_38_1.html

and by wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Graces_%28sculpture%29

Sculpture made out of one block of marmer by Canova and used on a 10 Euro Coin
I totallay acquired by accident cause the postage was paid for by another coin and
I foolishly thougt the vendor mistyped Casanova 

[Paint Your Wagon]

[scottishmoney]

Gees that would look wonderful in my art gallery.

[Paint Your Wagon]

Gees that would look wonderful in my art gallery.

I wonder how ST Petersburg got hold of it
Anyway my wife would want to redecorate the walls again 

[Paint Your Wagon]

I convinced my scanner I wanted this coin scanned
The coinholder was breaking up the light in rainbow colors witch I killed with total desaturation etc and selecting and reversing the selection and  and putting on a background all in layers and then redo contrast and white balance
and cussing photoshop which can do everything if you now 500 pages of instructions by heart
Still both backgrounds do not match but so be it

10 Euro 2006 circulating value in Italy and San Marino bwahaha
by the artist Canova the Three Graces daughters of Zeus himself

[TwoShadows]

Now that one DEFINITELY belongs in my Euro collection! San Marino coinage is tough to come by, at least over here, so its now on my want list!

[Paint Your Wagon]

Now that one DEFINITELY belongs in my Euro collection! San Marino coinage is tough to come by, at least over here, so its now on my want list!

This guy has one but I only paid 21.50 E and he is asking more as a starting prices
As an Austrian his shipping prices are on the reasonable side of expensive
He ships worldwide but I guess for a paypal payment he will want extra money which is legal over here

He must be using a mint made picture
Like the spanish they like to photoshop a blackgray contrast into the coin

http://cgi.ebay.de/SAN-MARINO-10-EURO-ANTONIO-CANOVA-2006-PP-SILBER_W0QQitemZ160225434878QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item160225434878


Shame on this one more the 2000 sales and he desaturated the pic and did not even bother to get it into focus

http://cgi.ebay.de/2006-10-Euro-Antonio-Canova-Ag-PP_W0QQitemZ380014552683QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item380014552683

[TwoShadows]

Well it appears they won't take PayPal and are not real interested in shipping world wide. I will continue my search and hope one turns up over here. In the mean time I can enjoy your great photo!

[Paint Your Wagon]

Well it appears they won't take PayPal and are not real interested in shipping world wide. I will continue my search and hope one turns up over here. In the mean time I can enjoy your great photo!

Hey thank you it is only a scan
I spend like 1 hour in photoshop to get rid of the rainbowcolors
I am sure matching the backgrounds is only 3 minutes work if you know HOW to do it ellegantly ; but I gave up on the background cause I liked the coin

Yesterday I spend 4 hours on a fotoshoot of 2 coins and had a short circuit in one of the bulb fixture having my living room full of smoke
this got my wife concerned cause I blew the safety switches etc
My conclusion is that my camera is super but I need to master the lighting environment 

[Paint Your Wagon]

Goya

In 1815, the Spanish Inquisition summoned Goya to reveal who commissioned him to create the "obscene" La maja desnuda, and he was consequently stripped of his position as the Spanish court painter. If Goya gave an explanation of the painting's origin to the Inquisition, that account has never surfaced. Two sets of stamps depicting La maja desnuda in commemoration of Goya's work were privately produced in 1930, and later approved by the Spanish Postal Authority. That same year, the United States government barred and returned any mail bearing the stamps.

La Maja Desnuda is in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid and is on display next to La Maja Vestida in the same room

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_maja_desnuda

[Paint Your Wagon]

La Maja Vestida
(Dressed Maja)

[Paint Your Wagon]

La Maja Desnuda

[Paint Your Wagon]

Can anybody with a medals reference work tell me anything about this medal ? After two days of surfing the web I only found they exist in 5 ounces too . I did not find any minting date nor any total strike limit .
Since mine as n° 26 struck on the side I guess they are very limited
This is a photo not a scan .The scanner could not handle the holder and gave nothing but rainbowcolors 

[TKO]

I have a question to ask about this too....

Is it just me or does the face on this coin look like a mans face with ladies hair?

[Paint Your Wagon]

I have a question to ask about this too....

Is it just me or does the face on this coin look like a mans face with ladies hair?

gosh man
I never looked at the face 

This medal is probably Spanish but the French Europa head is a pissed of looking thing with hair too
There are very very few coindesigners that can make the whole coin charming . I imagine the job does not pay enough
to attract the real talent . And even the real talent is uniside like Ingrès who could do fantastic standstill portrest but like a
critic said they all look like photoshoot models waiting for the photoshoot to be over .Whenever he tried an action painting it
was a disaster .

[TKO]

The face on this coin is definitely not the face on the painting. Not even close, in my book. As a matter of fact, it looks as though it was taken from another coin and integrated onto this remarkably accurate torso. Look at the transition points around the neckline. The head isn't even looking in the same direction as the painting. It's almost as though it was doctored up by a Hobo Nickel artist.

If it is an artist issue, I would bet a $20.00 bill that the artist that created the torso quit before finishing and they had someone to come in and attempt to put a face on it.

If I were to take a wild guess as to who it actually looks like, I would guess James Coburn without a mustache or beard while having a bad hair day.

TKO

[Yass]

I have a question to ask about this too....

Is it just me or does the face on this coin look like a mans face with ladies hair?

What face? There's a face? LOL 

[Paint Your Wagon]

Considering the difference between painting and coindesign I think the silver artist did a good job since he could not make the eyes colored and the nose and form of face are pleasingly greekish
And for an 1800's painting the bodyform is still stylish

[RenaL]

The hair is wawy instead of curly, and the coin lady is a bit slimmer with longer lips.
However it's definately nicely done, since the coin engraver only has light and shadow.

[Paint Your Wagon]

The hair is wawy instead of curly, and the coin lady is a bit slimmer with longer lips.
However it's definately nicely done, since the coin engraver only has light and shadow.

Thank you RenaL
I have never been impressed with most heads of great statues , if they still had a head
The lips are not longer but the medaillist tried to simulate hollows left and right of the lips which because of the lighting
look like longer
All in all I am very happy with the medal ; pitty I cannot find any details of the artist or the strike . Will have to ask elswhere I guess 

[Paint Your Wagon]

Well it seems like no English speaking person can give me any info on this medal
So I will have to go and ask the French 

[Paint Your Wagon]

Allonz enfants de la patrie le jour de gloire est arrivé

[Paint Your Wagon]

Hé I am Marie Ann and my Leftenant has several batteries of canons
I demand you wait for me silly Liberty
It is enough that Gavroche died in the streets

[scottishmoney]

I have some candidates here, from France d'accord   Will have to image sometime.  BTW POW love the gold, but I think you really need to get Maja in Aurum, she looks lovelier in the more noble metal.

[Paint Your Wagon]

I got the 1996 Maja Vestida from Monnaie de Paris 1 1/2 € for my birthday
Loverly

[Paint Your Wagon]

I also got a gold coin from a canvas by Titian

Here is the article to start with 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian

[scottishmoney]

I like the Maja Desnuda much better.  The kind of artwork you just want to jump into and enjoy the day with.

[Paint Your Wagon]

I got her for 11.61 € postage paid by the goldcoin
So I could not resist the price 

[Paint Your Wagon]

This is the goldcoin I got 
Oh yes ; everybody likes to rape Europa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tizian_085.jpg

[scottishmoney]

I got her for 11.61 € postage paid by the goldcoin
So I could not resist the price 

Would have been €111.61 without her unnecessary attire.

Here is what she is meant to look like:(note link posted since we might have young-uns here - enter at your own risk only if you are over 18 years old:)

La Maja Desnuda

[Paint Your Wagon]

I got her for 11.61 € postage paid by the goldcoin
So I could not resist the price 

Would have been €111.61 without her unnecessary attire.

Here is what she is meant to look like:(note link posted since we might have young-uns here - enter at your own risk only if you are over 18 years old:)

La Maja Desnuda

They take children to Musea over here you know  This is called art weather some cultural inclinations like it or not . The picture you showed nearly got the artist in prison from the Spanish inquisition  at the time of painting. He did the clothed Maja later.

[Paint Your Wagon]

In front of the European HQ at Strassbourg . A statue of the Rape of Europe originally from Titian
I am sorry to say she looks pregnant from that rape

[Paint Your Wagon]

San Marino 5 scudi 2000 gold

[Paint Your Wagon]

And the trademark three towers

[TwoShadows]

I have a Belgium 500 Franc silver proof, I believe from 2001, that has a quite attractive image of Europa riding the bull. I am rather fond of that coin! Also have other Europa & bull but don't remember the countries of origin with out digging them out. Do believe there is a Netherland commemorative silver medallion with such and one of their first Euro cents embedded on the reverse. Believe I have two San Marino silver commemoratives with the two towers but again I would have to locate them as well. Got quite a few EU silver commemoratives before my big paying job ended but things have slowed in the past 2 and a half years. Guess I will have to take an evening and pull out the Euro coinage to see what I do have in my collection now!
Missed an Italian silver commemorative in 2002 that I desperately wanted. Had an outstanding design of their lady liberty or Europa? on one side and a very beautiful tree on the reverse. Boy did I want that coin but it sold out and the secondary market rose very quickly. Will get one someday!

[Paint Your Wagon]

Terry
I had never seen the Belgian coin before It must be this one
http://users.telenet.be/egmp/belgie/cat/indexghe.htm



Spain did a gold europa on the bull . I saw some other metals by accident . I am nearly sure that a 2002 silver commem will be available at a decent price on ebay Germany that is dot de or Italy dot it but I have only bought twice in Italy and I shake everytime
Last coin came in a 2 pounds heavy telephone directory 

I scan all my coins and then they go to the bankvault .

I used to be an heavy duty taxpayer till 1997 . Was made redundent and got a better netto salary with an outfit that knew all expense tricks . Was fired in 2001 cause I was too sick to work with ulcers . I am a Temp consultant ever since
Due to the heavy duty taxpaying in my first job I got the maximum state pension possible
( Contributions are not limited but payouts are . So if they would pay me a ratio of my contributions my pension would be double but then again solidarity you know . I worked up to 1997 for my family and paid taxes which would support one retired person one jobless person and one student person )
There was one year in the 90's I paid about 4500 dollars city taxes on top of province and state and social security etc  .
Two years ago I paid 38 dollars city taxes I seem to remember 

[scottishmoney]

A scandalous painting whence it was canvassed ca. 1797-1800 the Maja Desnuda or Nude Maja by Francisco de Goya is one of the world's great paintings. 



But she looks good in gold too.  My latest acquisition

[Paint Your Wagon]

He got kicked out of the Royal Court by the Spanish Inquisition for that painting
Lucky they did not burn him at the stake or use the water torture but then again he was male so not a witch

She looks nice in gold yes . 

[scottishmoney]

He got kicked out of the Royal Court by the Spanish Inquisition for that painting
Lucky they did not burn him at the stake or use the water torture but then again he was male so not a witch

She looks nice in gold yes . 

He then had to paint a clothed Maja to make up for the sin.  The main sin in the painting was not the nude so much as her "sensitive" region being prominent. 

[Paint Your Wagon]

He got kicked out of the Royal Court by the Spanish Inquisition for that painting
Lucky they did not burn him at the stake or use the water torture but then again he was male so not a witch

She looks nice in gold yes . 

He then had to paint a clothed Maja to make up for the sin.  The main sin in the painting was not the nude so much as her "sensitive" region being prominent. 

Yes critics claim this was the first nude which was showing pubic hair but they were wrong
I forgot which Italian did it several hundred years before ; but the first was an italian and I guess before that lost paintings from Greeks etc

[Paint Your Wagon]

Ok This is my alltime favourite
Ingrès
La Source ( meaning the eternal spring or eternal flowing of water from the pot to the floor )
Notice the little bunch of life flowers left under
Ingrès is said as a painter never to have been able to capture motion
Well I think his failing best is good enough for me

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/I/ingres.html

Monnaie de Paris coined this one in gold and silver 
and since my birthday I got them both

[scottishmoney]

Ingres may not have been able to capture motion well, the water does indeed look leady.  But the water flowing from the jug is NOT the subject of the painting

[Paint Your Wagon]

Ok Monnaie de Paris with cert and box standard half ounce
Scan made with capsule in place
Those modern french coinmakers really do not know how to make a face but they seem to know how to make finished bodies
I mean effigies and fields and devices of course in coinspeak 

[TwoShadows]

Well Paint Your Wagon I will have to dig the coin out of storage as, if I remember correctly, the bull is standing and the design is facing right. Will get back with you on this one as my memory is NOT what it used to be. I do believe it was the last silver franc prior to the Euro being introduced?

[scottishmoney]

Paint Your Wagon, in reference to the French moneyers not making good faces on women, that is true.  They do make good bodies on them though, and it is how she feels more than how she looks that really matters.

[Paint Your Wagon]

Well Paint Your Wagon I will have to dig the coin out of storage as, if I remember correctly, the bull is standing and the design is facing right. Will get back with you on this one as my memory is NOT what it used to be. I do believe it was the last silver franc prior to the Euro being introduced?

The picture I posted is the last one in francs before the euro
Since these are distributed by the post office and since over here our postoffice think they have a license to kill I never saw that coin before.
I would like to see a scan of what you got if you get around to it
As to memory ; if I did not have a scan of all the coins I bought I might be buying the same one over and over 

[Paint Your Wagon]

Paint Your Wagon, in reference to the French moneyers not making good faces on women, that is true.  They do make good bodies on them though, and it is how she feels more than how she looks that really matters.

well in view of the Venus of Milo of 1993 there is progress 

[TKO]

I still looks like Kieffer Sutherland.....with boobs.

[Dumanyu]

I still looks like Kieffer Sutherland.....with boobs.

Actually I think it looks like Bill Clinton with a bad hair cut... and boobs.

[Paint Your Wagon]

Scottish
My scanner decided on making this picture looking this way . I say this before you remark were the light from a highlighting spot seems to be

She decidedly looks a lot more happy in silver 

I gave the vendor an  unfriendly feedback because he is a professional shop and he wrote a full page of blablabla and in all his german nonsensical phrases like the picture is uncleaned (sic) etc he very well hid the fact that he was selling the certificate separately .
Now stuff the cert but I hate to be bamboozled  Also since like 26 may ebay germany has a system where the ebay vendor can no longer give a negative back 
and so to other european ebays I see UK included

[Paint Your Wagon]

Since like 26 may the different ebays in europe have a different feedback system . A vendor getting a neutral or a negative cannot give the same back to the buyer if the buyer paid for the coin . And the neutral brings down the rating the same as a negative
The vendor of the coin posted in previous post sold the certificate separately and his text was too much for me to understand since his syntaxis was all wrong
He spoke of uncleaned pictures and things like that ( he meant the coin of course )
So I gave him the first neutral in his life ( after a 1000 sales ) telling him he should call a spade a spade and be more to the point
He sent private emails back saying like I was a lyer not understanding his page of german verbal diarhea and that I was a disgrace to ebay and that I should not expect priviliges because I was an engineer and that even german being my 4th language I should learn it better etc

Now if the germans do not plan to come back and occupy the country for 4 years again I do not plan to learn better german 
And the vendor forgets I have two more unused feedbacks which I can excercise in seven days 

[scottishmoney]

Das ist nein gut fur zie deutsche.     Don't ask me to improv more German.  The rest is limited to asking for fraulein and bier, you know, the important things in life.

[Paint Your Wagon]

Das ist nein gut fur zie deutsche.     Don't ask me to improv more German.  The rest is limited to asking for fraulein and bier, you know, the important things in life.

My top bad german questions

1) Ich bin Belgen und kan spesenfrei uberweisen darf ich mitbieten
Roughly translated : I am no kraut but can pay so you loose nothing in banktransfer Can I bid on your german only auction

2) Was fragen Sie fur versicherter versand nach Belgien
What is the cost of shipping insured to Belgium

3) Ist den foto den von die muenze die Sie verkaufen oder ein symbolfoto
Roughly translated : Did you steal somebodies foto or is this really the coin you are selling

ebay does not allow to say ; Es ist eine verdamte schweinerei
This cannot be translated but means something like I wandered into a pigsty

When I told this guy there was a scratch on the capsule he said to reread the offer and to point out where he even
offered to provide a capsule . The things we take for granted are our greastes weakness against hardened non ethical vendors

[scottishmoney]

The word for German, or lowly foreigner, but originally intended for Germans, in Russian is svinii.  Which is rather quite similar to the German word for pig.  In fact that is where it likely came from.  For awhile after WWII that was worse than the various F-words you can use in Russian.

[Paint Your Wagon]

The word for German, or lowly foreigner, but originally intended for Germans, in Russian is svinii.  Which is rather quite similar to the German word for pig.  In fact that is where it likely came from.  For awhile after WWII that was worse than the various F-words you can use in Russian.

In Flemish Zwijn in German Schwein
For some or other reason my mother combined the pig and the dog into schweinhund and that was the standard worst you could say about a kraut ( kraut coming from sauerkraut what you eat with frankfurters= hotdogs )

[Paint Your Wagon]

Can you believe it
This german bought 48 identical rats 

[scottishmoney]

Actually my family, well one of my uncles, called them schweinhunds also.  Funnily enough, he had some German ancestory. 

[Paint Your Wagon]

Actually my family, well one of my uncles, called them schweinhunds also.  Funnily enough, he had some German ancestory. 

English does not seem to have a word for people that wolf down their food . Most european languages do
So another insult is schwiebelfresser ( he wo wolfs down pure onions as his sole food )

[Nevol]

English does not seem to have a word for people that wolf down their food

In Australia we'd probably call them either a 'guts' or a 'pig'. They could also be a glutton.

[Paint Your Wagon]

English does not seem to have a word for people that wolf down their food

In Australia we'd probably call them either a 'guts' or a 'pig'. They could also be a glutton.

I have not been using an english dictionary for 20 years now
So most of my knowledge is by "feel"
I thougt a glutton is somebody who likes to eat and eat

In Flemish and German there are three ways of eating
Fressen is eating like a pig just shovelling it in
Essen is everyday eating to live
Speisen is dining on more or less sofisticated food for pleasure

[Paint Your Wagon]

The Mona Lisa
I do not know if there are still people who never heard of the Mona Lisa
According to popular songs she has a very enigmatic smile

[Paint Your Wagon]

Also called La Gioconda from Leonard da Vinci

http://www.metacrawler.com/info.metac/clickit/search?r_aid=350AC63A188C425E9F81C4A1851DF190&r_eop=1&r_sacop=1&r_spf=0&r_cop=main-title&r_snpp=1&r_spp=0&qqn=dh0v)ak%3D&r_coid=239138&rawto=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa

[Paint Your Wagon]

1 oz 500FF 1993
5000 struck Monnaie de Paris
certificate 1245
In my opinion one of the very few coins with a nicely executed face

[scottishmoney]

A rather unimposing painting, that attracts more attention in the Louvre than many many more worthy works.  As for works in the Louvre, I prefer the Flemish/Dutch wings in the museum.

But there are also other Italian works that in my opin are more significant:

[Paint Your Wagon]

At one time my hometown hosted a gallery for Jeroen Bosch better known as Hieronymus Bosch
Everyone trouped in front of the very large canvasses
I favoured a small painting of a aquarium with fishes which does not seem to be amongst his favourite works

[scottishmoney]

Some of Hieronymus Bosch's works are amazing, especially the "Garden of Earthly Delights"  "Ship of Fools" is in the Louvre and I have seen it.  He works are amazing in that in a classical world, he was painting works that could very easily fit in with modern works, by Picasso and Dali.  They actually did cause a degree of scandal during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, but the message whilst harsh was that morality should be followed.

[Paint Your Wagon]

I had to study the Flemish and Dutch masters
He reminded me of Breughel
Paintings crowded with little people

Garden

[scottishmoney]

Paintings crowded with little people having the joys of life and going to hell for it

I think we could sit in a cafe and discuss this art for days, o'er beer and fries of course

[Paint Your Wagon]

Yes but after the fries a little rice cooked in milk with safran ; nearly solid like a pie or something more refined like Crème Brulé

And later baked bloodsausage in a hardbread piccolo and a quick visit home for some calfshead in brainsauce
( You can see that after the WWII food was scarce or expensive for another 7-10 years )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peasant_Wedding

[Paint Your Wagon]

Ok the spanish painter Velasquez with his best known work Las Meninas
For long misunderstood and a lot of wrong things written about it
Only when the curator of the museum had it X rayed etc the truth came out
In the original there is a young suitor courting the 8 year old Marie Marguerite  we are talking 1657 like and there is no male heir to the throne of spain and this painting is prepairing the population for a queen
Two thins happened , a male was born and the infante died at age 12
So Velasquez changed the painting and put himself before a huge painting of which you see only the back on the place the young suitor was
It is said that this painting is completely against the custom of having the lighting coming from one side and he uses the other side

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_M%C3%A9nines

[Paint Your Wagon]

L'infante Marie Marguerite

[Paint Your Wagon]

Oh I forgot
If she does not look Spanish that is because her father was Spanish but her mother was Austrian

[Paint Your Wagon]

This one is in France in the Louvre

[Paint Your Wagon]

When I got the coin at melt in Austria there were sooo many fingerprints on it that Interpol could have found at least 4 culprits
all employed by a stuped local bank that thought you had to finger coins to feel their weight and now they were real .
I could not stand the sight of it so I dunked it for half an hour in acetone without making a copy of the ill deeds done
Lucky after half an hour nobody in the whole wide world can see that this coin has been rescued from a fate worse then melting down
that is acid bitten in the copper part
Without further adoo the Infante
Standard half ounce from Monnaie de Paris

[TwoShadows]

I think I have the silver version of the Mona Lisa but would have to do some digging to turn it up. Don't remember the mintage on the silver euro but did like the design. Isn't it awful to be so old that one doesn't remember what he owns?

[Paint Your Wagon]

I scan everything to be sure what I have and do not have
I thought I nearly bought the coronation of napoleon twice and on looking at my computer I found out that the coin on offer was the coronation of Josephine which I did not have . So when the mail arrives I will have Josephine as well

[Paint Your Wagon]

The painting is by David ( never heard of the painter ) It is a very large painting and intresting
It shows all the family of Napoleon Ist and what is more important the pope is in the painting happy to keep his head and not allowed to stand or do anything . Napoloen Ist himself is crowning his first wife Josephine de Beauharnais a widow with two children. After a few years she will be divorced cause she gave no children to napoleon and surprise surprise the vatican is happy to annul their mariage and in comes Marie Louiese de Parme
Since Napoleon was banned after loosing the battle of Waterloo in Belgium in 1815 she became Duchess of Parma and Napoleon II died at the age of 6 .

[Paint Your Wagon]

I got the coin with certificate and original box for 3% over melt .

[Humpybong]

Now that is what I call a good buy PYW.

You have some very great looking coins in your collection.

[Paint Your Wagon]

Thank you
The days I paid double or more above melt are 3 years gone when gold was 300 euro an ounce (it is 580 today)
In the summer period many vendors make the mistake of putting a coin up without minimum starting price and I constantly bottomfish
Monnaie de Paris had one hell of a designer cum striking team .
This is from the 1993 Louvre Art series

[Paint Your Wagon]

All these coins have the same reverse with 100 F or 500 F on it
On this one the green you see at the bottom is my new scanner breaking up in rainbow colors since it got a led illumination
which is bad for proofs I think
I still have to restart my photographic tests but I could have photoshopped the green out by the burning tool
but since it is really not obstructive I did not bother

[Paint Your Wagon]

I will take the liberty of counting fairy tales as works of art

Message from Cinderella to Fanny and Freddy
It is ten to twelve and soon you will be a pumpkin and 6 blind mice again

[Paint Your Wagon]

Il était une fois .........dans un pays lointain

[RenaL]

Once upon a time, in a country far away


The Danish have some fairy tale coins as well.
The serie depicts scenes from famous tales of Hans Christian Andersen

The Ugly Duckling:


The Little Mermaid


The Shadow


The Snow Queen


The nightingale