Token - Révolution Française Projet 1983

Issued as part of Monnaie de Paris's long-running series of annual tokens — jetons de la Monnaie — this piece was struck six years ahead of the Revolution's bicentennial, which France began preparing for institutionally well before 1989. The bicentennial commission, eventually chaired by Jean-Noël Jeanneney, generated substantial controversy over how — and whether — to celebrate a revolution that included the Terror.