10 Euros Mont Fuji

Part of the Monnaie de Paris "Shapes of the World" series, this issue belongs to a run of shaped coins — in this case curved, mimicking the mountain's profile — that pushed French mint production techniques into genuinely awkward territory. The concave/convex striking requirement demands precise die alignment tolerances that flat planchet presses were never designed to handle.

Fuji's designation as a UNESCO Cultural Heritage site in 2013, rather than Natural Heritage, was a deliberate workaround — the mountain failed natural site criteria due to pollution levels on its slopes.