National Heritage Site – Paper Mill at Losiny

Preparation of designs for the coin – competition conditions - only Czech version
Technical preparation of the coin – competition results - only Czech version

On 10 May 2006, the Czech National Bank is putting into circulation the first gold commemorative coin from its Industrial Heritage Sites cycle: “National Heritage Site – Hand-Paper Mill at Velké Losiny” with a face value of CZK 2,500. The coin was minted by the Czech Mint in Jablonec nad Nisou from 999.9 purity gold in two quality versions – normal and proof (high polish and matt relief). The two versions differ also in their edges – the normal quality coins have milled edges and the proof-quality coins have plain edges. The coin has a diameter of 22 mm, a weight of 7.78 g and a thickness of 1.45 mm.

The centre of the obverse side of the coin depicts a composition of heraldic animals from the large national coat-of-arms of the Czech Republic. The large Czech lion in period depiction is in the middle, with the Moravian eagle on the right and the Silesian eagle on the left in contemporary depiction, in negative relief and located in square shields. Written on two lines below the heraldic animals is the name of the state “ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA”. The heraldic animals and the name of the state protrude from the coin’s centre to the ring separated by an astragal. The ring features the unclosed text of the name of the cycle “KULTURNÍ PAMÁTKY TECHNICKÉHO DĚDICTVÍ“. The bottom edge of the coin bears the denomination and abbreviated monetary unit “2500 Kč” on the ring. The mark of the Czech Mint, which minted the coin, is positioned in the centre of the coin below the Moravian eagle.

The centre of the reverse side of the coin features a period engraving of a scene from the Renaissance hand-paper mill. The left-hand upper edge features the building of the Velké Losiny hand-paper mill and the right-hand lower edge the Žerotín lion watermark used on the hand-made paper from this mill. All the illustrations protrude from the coin’s centre to the ring separated by an astragal. The left-hand, upper and right-hand edge of the coin features the unclosed inscription “PAPÍRNA VE VELKÝCH LOSINÁCH” and the bottom edge of the coin features the year of mintage “2006” bounded on both sides by a small plant decoration. The coin was designed by Luboš Charvát, whose mark – the stylised interlinked letters “LCH” – is located at the lower edge of the coin, to the left of the plant decoration.

Each coin comes with a red postcard-sized catalogue card. The relief of the coin is dry-stamped through gold foil. The text is given in Czech and English. The card is the same for the normal-quality and proof-quality coins.
The Czech National Bank does not sell its commemorative coins to private individuals directly, but through entities licensed to trade in numismatic material.