FRANCE 98 – Press releaseTemplate
To mark the occasion, Emmanuel Constans, Director of la Monnaie de Paris (the Paris Mint), presented Fernand Sastre and Michel Platini, the FRANCE 98 Presidents, with a gift collection box of the 15 gold and silver coins of the 16th World Cup on 10 April 1998 at the French Organising Committee headquarters in Paris.
All the Official Coins have been minted in limited numbers. They all bear the Official FRANCE 98 logo on one side, and depict footballing movements, symbols recalling previous World Cup winners, and the five continents on the other.
The coins bear two hallmarks of quality and authenticity: the horn of plenty, which is the Paris Mint’s signature, and the bee, the Engraver General’s trademark. The coins come with a numbered certificate of authenticity co-signed by Emmanuel Constans, the Paris Mint Director, Fernand Sastre and Michel Platini.
The French Organising Committee and la Monnaie de Paris signed a co-operation agreement for the creation of an official World Cup Coin Set back in March 1996.
For this very special event, the coins in the collection—the first of which was issued in June 1996—are also very special: gold and silver coins using four different themes, namely footballing values, France, the five continents and World Cup history.
In order to choose the coin designs a competition was launched in January 1996. A total of 18 different proposals were laid before the Paris Mint, and the distinguished jury making the decisions included Fernand Sastre and Michel Platini, the FRANCE 98 Presidents, and Jacques Lambert, the Managing Director of the French Organising Committee.
A grand total of 900,000 coins were minted to be sold all over the world in celebration of this great event, making up 5,000 box sets containing the 15 gold and silver coins in the collection.