The French mint (Monnaie de Paris) has just issued two coins featuring Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the later king Karl Johan of Sweden. Bernadotte was a French soldier, and became a general, in the revolution army. Under Napoleon he was honored with the title of a marshal (Maréchal de France). In 1810 the Swedish parliament asked him to become hereditary prince of Sweden, and Bernadotte agreed.

Eight years later he became king of Sweden (and, in a personal union, of Norway).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_XIV_John_of_Sweden
Not quite sure whether 2006 is a Bernadotte anniversary in any way ...

The two pieces have the same design. One is a silver coin (nominal value €0.25), the other one is a €10 gold coin. This is the silver piece:



Mintage is 10,000 max for the silver coin, and 1,000 max for the gold coin. Both are kind of expensive, I think (net price about 20 and 250 euro respectively), but apparently the French mint expects the pieces to sell well in Sweden.

Christian

Well it is clear their goal is to sell as much gold as possible with a 100% markup over melt
After Kitty for the Japanese they are probably trying to figure out which countries have the richest citizens and what design they will like

France has a precedent with some coins issued recently for Chinese market if I remember correctly...

You do. There was one in 2004 (Year of the French culture in China), one in 2005 (Year of the Chinese culture in France), and this year's La Fontaine - Année du Chien combination. Maybe the French mint is on its way to custom minting for major customers and markets ...

Christian