2016-02-26 Fri

Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist and dramatist of the Romantic Movement was born on 26th February 1802.

Victor Hugo is considered as one of the greatest and best-known French writers. His literary fame comes from poetry and novels and his dramatic achievements. His famous poetry volumes are ‘Les Contemplations’ and ‘La Légende des siècles’. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels ‘Les Misérables’, 1862, and ‘Notre-Dame de Paris’, 1831 (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). He is respected as a campaigner for social causes and has gained a lot of admiration from all over the world.

In 1985, France struck a 10 Francs Copper-nickel Aluminium coin of 10 grams to commemorate the 100th death anniversary of Victor Hugo. The obverse has his portrait along with the birth and death years. The reverse has a scene from the novel "Les Miserables" Cosette and Gavroche at the barricade.

Another 20 Euro Gold coins have been issued by France in 2002 to commemorate this legendary author and human right activist. The obverse shows the portrait of Victor Hugo and the reverse portrays ‘Gavroche’ a character from his famous novel "Les Miserables".