50 Euros P-38 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Saint-Exupéry disappeared on July 31, 1944, during a reconnaissance mission over the Mediterranean — his P-38 Lightning was finally identified off the coast of Marseille in 2004, sixty years after the fact. France had been issuing commemorative currency in his honor long before that wreck was located, but this 2019 Monnaie de Paris piece falls within a broader multi-year program honoring French literary and cultural figures under the "Grands Hommes" framework. The 7.78g weight places it squarely in the quarter-ounce gold category, a deliberate commercial decision to keep entry price accessible for collector-investors.