80 Years Since the Publication of The Little Prince

At the centre, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's hero in a pensive pose. In the background the large numeral "80", orbited by stars and a planet. Above the design the commemoration inscription "Le Petit Prince"; along the upper edge the monogram "RF" flanked on both sides by the mint marks of the French Mint and Chief Engraver Joaquin Jimenez. The year "2026" appears along the lower edge.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is one of the most widely read French-language authors in the world — a distinction he owes chiefly to "Le Petit Prince", published in New York in 1943. The book has been translated into more than 300 languages and dialects and ranks among the best-selling works in world literature. Saint-Exupéry wrote it in exile in the United States, while France was under German occupation — a context that lends the seemingly childlike story its melancholy depth. The author was also a pioneer of civil aviation, flying postal routes over the Sahara and South America in the 1920s and 1930s, experiences that fed into all of his work. In 1944 he disappeared during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean; his fate remained unresolved for decades.

"The Little Prince" is part of France's shared cultural heritage: the story has shaped school curricula, exhibitions and pop-culture references for generations. At the same time, the work is so firmly established internationally that it is cited across language barriers in debates on childhood, loss and human relationships. Saint-Exupéry's figure of the prince, travelling from planet to planet and questioning the adult world with childlike directness, has developed its own tradition of philosophical reception. With the 2026 2-euro commemorative coin, France marks the 80th anniversary of the first European publication of "Le Petit Prince" — an anniversary that underscores the work's lasting place in French and European cultural history.