France Year of the Pig 2007 Silver 1/4 Euro 30mm (22.20 grams) 0.900 Silver (0.6424 oz. ASW) Reference: KM# 1417
| Mintage: 10,000 Année du Cochon 2007 年, Pig within wreath. Fables de La Fontaine 1/4 EURO 2007, Jean de la Fontaine facing 1/2 right, animals of the zodiac right. You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
![Portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud (Carnavalet Museum)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Jean_de_La_Fontaine.PNG/220px-Jean_de_La_Fontaine.PNG)
Jean de La Fontaine (8 July 1621 – 13
April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the
most widely read French poets of the 17th
century. He is known above all for his Fables,
which provided a model for subsequent fabulists
across Europe and numerous alternative versions
in France, as well as in French regional
languages.
After a long period of royal suspicion, he
was admitted to the French Academy and his
reputation in France has never faded since.
Evidence of this is found in the many pictures
and statues of the writer, later depictions on
medals, coins and postage stamps.
It was about this time that the quartet of
the Rue du Vieux Colombier, so famous in French
literary history, was formed. It consisted of La
Fontaine, Racine, Boileau and Molière, the last
of whom was almost of the same age as La
Fontaine, the other two considerably younger.
Chapelain was also a kind of outsider in the
coterie. There are many anecdotes, some pretty
obviously apocryphal, about these meetings. The
most characteristic is perhaps that which
asserts that a copy of Chapelain's unlucky
Pucelle always lay on the table, a certain
number of lines of which was the appointed
punishment for offences against the company. The
coterie furnished under feigned names the
personages of La Fontaine's version of the Cupid
and Psyche story, which, however, with Adonis,
was not printed till 1669. Facsimile of one of
the very few manuscripts by Jean de La Fontaine
Meanwhile, the poet continued to find friends. In 1664 he was regularly
commissioned and sworn in as gentleman to the duchess dowager of Orléans,
and was installed in the Luxembourg. He still retained his rangership, and
in 1666 we have something like a reprimand from Colbert suggesting that he
should look into some malpractices at Chateau Thierry. In the same year
appeared the second book of the Contes, and in 1668 the first six books of
the Fables, with more of both kinds in 1671. In this latter year a curious
instance of the docility with which the poet lent himself to any influence
was afforded by his officiating, at the instance of the Port-Royalists, as
editor of a volume of sacred poetry dedicated to the Prince of Conti.
A year afterwards his situation, which had
for some time been decidedly flourishing, showed
signs of changing very much for the worse. The
duchess of Orléans died, and he apparently had
to give up his rangership, probably selling it
to pay debts. But there was always a providence
for La Fontaine. Madame de la Sablière, a woman
of great beauty, of considerable intellectual
power and of high character, invited him to make
his home in her house, where he lived for some
twenty years. He seems to have had no trouble
whatever about his affairs thenceforward; and
could devote himself to his two different lines
of poetry, as well as to that of theatrical
composition.
The Pig (豬) or sometimes translated as the Boar is the twelfth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in Chinese zodiac, in relation to the Chinese calendar and system of horology, and paralleling the system of ten Heavenly Stems and twelve Earthly Branches. Although the term "zodiac" (etymologically referring to a " ] little animals") is used in the phrase "Chinese zodiac", there is a major difference between the Chinese usage and Western astrology: the zodiacal animals (including the zodiacal Pig) do not relate to the zodiac as the area of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun, the Moon, and visible planets across the celestial sphere's constellations, over the course of the year.
In Chinese astrology, "zodiacal" animals refer to fixed cycles of twelve animals. The same cycle of twelve is used for cycles of years and cycles of hours. In the case of years, the cycle of twelve corresponds to the twelve-year cycle of Jupiter. In the case of the hours, the twelve hours represent twelve double-hours for each period of night and day. In the continuous sexagenary cycle of sixty years, every twelfth year corresponds to hai, 亥 (the twelfth of the twelve Earthly Branches); this re-recurring twelfth year is commonly called the Year of the Pig (豬年).
There are five types of Pigs, named after the Chinese elements. In order, they are: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. These correspond to the Heavenly Stems. Thus, there are five pig years in every sexegenary cycle. For example, in the year 2019, the Earthly Branch is the twelfth, hài, and the Heavenly Stem is the sixth, jǐ 己. The Chinese New Year in 2019 is February fifth: this corresponds with the beginning of both the sexegenary year of jǐ hài and also the zodiac year of the Earth Pig. In the Japanese zodiac and the Tibetan zodiac, the Pig is referred to as the boar. In the Dai zodiac, the Pig is replaced by the elephant. In the Gurung zodiac, the Pig is replaced by the deer. The Malay zodiac replaces the Pig with the tortoise.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/125px-Flag_of_France.svg.png) France, officially the French Republic (French: République française), is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European part of France, called Metropolitan France, extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. France spans 640,679 square kilometres (247,368 sq mi) and has a total population of 67 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. The Constitution of France establishes the state as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/EU-France.svg/250px-EU-France.svg.png) During the Iron Age, what is now Metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The Gauls were conquered in 51 BC by the Roman Empire, which held Gaul until 486. The Gallo-Romans faced raids and migration from the Germanic Franks, who dominated the region for hundreds of years, eventually creating the medieval Kingdom of France. France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453) strengthening French state-building and paving the way for a future centralized absolute monarchy. During the Renaissance, France experienced a vast cultural development and established the beginning of a global colonial empire. The 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). France became Europe's dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV. French philosophers played a key role in the Age of Enlightenment during the 18th century. In 1778, France became the first and the main ally of the new United States in the American Revolutionary War. In the late 18th century, the absolute monarchy was overthrown in the French Revolution. Among its legacies was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, one of the earliest documents on human rights, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. France became one of modern history's earliest republics until Napoleon took power and launched the First French Empire in 1804. Fighting against a complex set of coalitions during the Napoleonic Wars, he dominated European affairs for over a decade and had a long-lasting impact on Western culture. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments: the monarchy was restored, it was replaced in 1830 by a constitutional monarchy, then briefly by a Second Republic, and then by a Second Empire, until a more lasting French Third Republic was established in 1870. By the 1905 law, France adopted a strict form of secularism, called laïcité, which has become an important federative principle in the modern French society. France reached its territorial height during the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it ultimately possessed the second-largest colonial empire in the world. In World War I, France was one of the main winners as part of the Triple Entente alliance fighting against the Central Powers. France was also one of the Allied Powers in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis Powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War. The Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Following World War II, most of the empire became decolonized. Throughout its long history, France has been a leading global center of culture, making significant contributions to art, science, and philosophy. It hosts Europe's third-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites (after Italy and Spain) and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, the most of any country in the world. France remains a great power with significant cultural, economic, military, and political influence. It is a developed country with the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and eight-largest by purchasing power parity. According to Credit Suisse, France is the fourth wealthiest nation in the world in terms of aggregate household wealth. It also possesses the world's second-largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ), covering 11,035,000 square kilometres (4,261,000 sq mi). French citizens enjoy a high standard of living, and the country performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, civil liberties, and human development. France is a founding member of the United Nations, where it serves as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and La Francophonie. France is a founding and leading member state of the European Union (EU).
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