200 Euros Concorde

Issued to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Concorde's first flight — January 2, 1969, from Toulouse — this piece belongs to a Monnaie de Paris aviation series that has become a reliable secondary market performer. Concorde itself was a Franco-British project under the 1962 treaty between the two governments, with France's Aérospatiale and Britain's BAC sharing development; the French side always claimed the trailing 'e' was non-negotiable, de Gaulle having reportedly insisted on it personally.

Commercial service ran from 1976 until Air France and British Airways retired their fleets in 2003, following the July 2000 crash of Flight 4590 at Gonesse.