50 Euros Astérix et le Bouclier d'Arverne

Issued as part of Monnaie de Paris's ongoing licensed series celebrating French comic heritage, this piece draws on René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's 1968 album in which Astérix ventures into the Auvergne — ancient Arverne territory — to recover the shield of Vercingétorix, the Gallic chieftain defeated by Caesar at Alésia in 52 BC. The choice of that particular album was deliberate: Vercingétorix occupies an outsized place in French national mythology, having been rehabilitated as a founding symbol of Gallic resistance by Napoleon III, who funded excavations at Alésia in the 1860s.

Mintage for this issue was capped at 500 pieces.