| Description : Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Rainier Grimaldi (1923‐2005)
succeeded his grandfather Louis II as Rainier III in the reign of the principality after his mother Charlotte
abdicated the throne in 1949. His full title was: Prince de Monaco, Duc de Valentinois, Marquis des Baux, Comte de
Carladès, Baron du Buis, Seigneur de Saint‐Remy, Sire de Matignon, Comte de Torigni, Baron de Saint‐Lô,
de la Luthumière et de Hambye, Duc d'Estouteville, de Mazarin et de Mayenne, Prince de Château‐Porcien,
Comte de Ferrette, de Belfort, de Thann et de Rosemont, Baron d'Altkirch et Seigneur d'Issenheim, Marquis de Chilly, Comte
de Longjumeau, Baron de Massy, Marquis de Guiscard. Educated in English and Swiss boarding schools, he had studied at the
École libre des sciences politiques (Free School of Political Sciences) in Paris, called 'Sciences Po'. In 1956, he
married the US film actress and Oscar winner Grace Kelly, who thus became Princess Grace of Monaco. The marriage produced
three children: Caroline, Albert and Stéphanie of Monaco. In 1982, the Princess, also known as 'Gracia Patricia',
died in a car accident. Under the reign of Rainier III, the Principality developed into the centre of international
high society; tourism, congresses and industrialisation boomed and new land was gained on the coast. Below the portrait of
the Prince, his name and date of birth are inscribed in a circular arc with "♦ RAINIER III •
31 MAI 1923 ♦" (23rd of May 1923). At the top, the country of issue and the year of issue
are shown in a circular arc with "MONACO 2023", flanked on the left by a cornucopia as the mint mark of the French mint
Monnaie de Paris in Pessac and on the right by the square mintmaster's mark of the French chief engraver Joaquin
Jimenez. |
