100 Greatest Women On Coins Series: Two Young Girls at the Piano, By Renoir

It has been long since reiterated the basis for which the 100 Greatest Women On Coins publication from Whitman Publishing is modeled after. Authored by Ron Guth, the compiled list was chosen based on four categories for which the women chosen fit into. Those categories include real (or actual) women, goddesses, allegorical figures who represent a nationality, concept, or idea, and women in art. If recollection serves us right, there has yet to be an entry that features that last category, women in art, until right now. Featuring one of the greatest painters in history, this middle-of-the-pack pick was chosen on another high profile list and commemorated on a single coin.

#54 - Two Young Girls at the Piano, By Renoir

Painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1892, Two Young Girls at the Piano was sold to the French government. The first painting of Renoir’s to have done so, this also made it known how high profile and how well respected his work had come to be. Purchased for 4,000 francs, the highest price ever paid for one of his works, the now famous painting was done with Renoir already dealing with the effects of rheumatoid arthritis. This disease would eventually affect his abilities to continue painting.

Renoir was born in 1841 and would pass in 1919 being considered one of the greatest Impressionist painters. At a young age, he worked at a porcelain factory as an apprentice painting plates and vases. He would attend art classes and spend time at the Louvre museum trying to copy the paintings. Over a number of years, Renoir would paint on commission producing portraits, nudes, cityscapes, landscapes, and more. When he died, he was said to have painted several thousand works in his time.

Andorra, a small principality situated between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains, issued a 10-diner coin commemorating Two Young Girls at the Piano as part of the series the Greatest Painters of the World. The obverse of the 2008-dated coin has a partially colorized version of the painting with the girls shown in silver. The reverse features Renoir himself underneath a colorized palette with the image of the Bust Portrait of Jeanne Samary, a painting done by Renoir in 1877.

According to Guth, the 10-diner coin from Andorra is seen most often on the secondary market, making the collecting difficulty easy. Prices vary based on the example.