Belgium €10 2011. Professor Piccard & "Bathyscaphe FNRS 2." Silver Proof

Belgium €10 2011. Professor Piccard & "Bathyscaphe FNRS 2." Silver Proof

The first bathyscaphe was dubbed FNRS- 2, named after the Fonds National de laRecherche Scientifique, and was built in Belgium from 1946 and 1948 by Auguste Piccard. The first journeys were detailed in Jacques Cousteau’s book The Silent World. In 1960 Trieste, carrying Piccard's son Jacques Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh, reached the deepest known point on the Earth's surface, the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench. As of 2010, these two remain the only people to reach this extreme depth. No manned vessel has ever repeated the feat. In 1995, the Japanese sent an unmanned submersible to this depth, Kaiko, but it was later lost at sea.
Most recently, in 2009, a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution sent a robotic submarine named Nereus to the bottom of the trench.

Metal: .925 Silver
Weight (gm): 18.75
Diam. (mm): 33

Mintage: 15,000