‘… but I have the sunflower, in a way.’
Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo, Arles, 22 January 1889
A special issue for a special anniversary
To mark the Van Gogh Museum’s 50th anniversary, the Royal Dutch Mint launched a special issue: fifty silver coins featuring a sunflower inspired by Sunflowers, one of Vincent van Gogh’s best-known paintings.
One of the sunflowers is rendered in enamel, creating a distinctive colour effect inspired by the colours in Van Gogh’s painting. The reverse features the Van Gogh Museum’s special anniversary logo.
In addition to the silver issue, a special medal in a coin card was also launched in 2023, including a specially designed 50-cent coin. Both products celebrated the museum’s anniversary. The first silver Van Gogh coin was presented to Rob Groot, Managing Director of the Van Gogh Museum. The anniversary coins proved highly popular among collectors and sold out within a short time.
Sunflowers
The silver coin and medal are a tribute to Vincent’s Sunflowers. He painted these works in 1888 and 1889 in Arles, in the South of France. Van Gogh painted a total of five large canvases depicting sunflowers in a vase, using three shades of yellow ‘and nothing else’.
In doing so, he demonstrated that it was possible to create a powerful image using different variations of a single colour. Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings held special significance for him: they expressed ‘gratitude’.