No ‘All for one and one for all’ here. It takes four coins to tell the story of the Three Musketeers

One of the all time classical adventure novels, The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas was written in 1844 and been turned into everything from stage plays and movies, to comics and video games in the 175 years since. Telling the story of a young adventurer in early 17th century France, it has become one of the most popular pieces of French literature in history – known throughout the world.

Despite the title, the novel has four main characters to root for. The Three Musketeers in question are Aramis, Porthos and Athos, along with a fourth major character around whom the book is based, D’Artagnan. Each of these four is showcased on their own coin in this new set from German producer, MDM. Rectangular (40 x 30 mm) and struck in an ounce of fine (0.999) silver, each depicts the musketeer in exactly the kind of pose you would expect. The backgrounds form a single image when the coins are placed alongside each other in the right order – easily done in the provided presentation box.

Each coin is antique finished and rimless, with a common obverse. The obverse carries the emblem of Djibouti, a nation situated on the Horn of Africa close to Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Yemen. Obviously not the most stable of neighbourhoods, but it continues the growing popularity of this continent with new coin issues that began with such issues as the Somali Elephant a couple of decades ago.

Packaging is beautifully done and makes this a fine gift for the literature fan. A wooden chest has places for all four coins to sit alongside each other, and the exterior is decorated with multiple fleur-de-lis on the lid – a nice piece of theming. A certificate of authenticity is enclosed and the mintage is capped at 1,844 sets. Price seems to have settled around the $300 USD/€300 mark and a couple of our sponsors are selling it.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS

The Three Musketeers (French: Les Trois Mousquetaires) is a historical adventure novel written in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas.

Set in 1625–1628, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d’Artagnan (based on Charles de Batz-Castelmore d’Artagnan) after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard. Although d’Artagnan is not able to join this elite corps immediately, he befriends the three most formidable musketeers of the age—Athos, Porthos and Aramis—and gets involved in affairs of the state and court.

In genre, The Three Musketeers is primarily a historical and adventure novel. However, Dumas also frequently works into the plot various injustices, abuses, and absurdities of the old regime, giving the novel an additional political aspect at a time when the debate in France between republicans and monarchists was still fierce. The story was first serialised from March to July 1844, during the July Monarchy, four years before the French Revolution of 1848 violently established the Second Republic. The author’s father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, had been a well-known General in France’s Republican army during the French Revolutionary Wars.

The story of d’Artagnan is continued in Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. (Source: Wikipedia)

SPECIFICATION
DENOMINATION 4 x 250 Francs (Djibouti)
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver
WEIGHT 4 x 31.1 grams
DIMENSIONS 30.0 x 40.0 mm
FINISH Antique
MODIFICATIONS Rimless, high-relief
MINTAGE 1,844
BOX / COA Yes / Yes