CNB to issue ducats for first time, alongside commemorative coins and banknotes

The Czech National bank has unveiled its schedule of issuance of commemorative coins and banknotes for 2021–2025. Collectors can look forward to coins featuring motifs of iconic means of transport and municipal heritage sites and to a large diameter coin commemorating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Great Prague. The bank will also issue Czech ducats for the first time ever.

The new schedule of issuance as usual reflects important anniversaries in Czech history and various historical sights related to the Czech Republic. It includes both silver and gold commemorative coins and a second commemorative banknote. Moreover, since 2018 the CNB has also been allowed to issue trade coins ¹, so the schedule now includes Czech ducats.

“This de facto involves the transfer of the exclusive right to mint ducats from the state to the Czech National Bank. The state held this right continuously from 1923 to 2018, but has not exercised it since 1982,” said Bank Board member Vojtěch Benda.

Ducats will be issued twice during the five-year issuing period, first in 2023 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Czechoslovak “Saint Wenceslas” ducat, and then in 2025 to mark the 700th anniversary of the start of mintage of the first Czech gold coins by John of Luxembourg.

The CZK 200 silver coins will feature a total of 16 motifs. They will mark, for example, 100 years since the start of regular broadcasting by Czechoslovak Radio, 150 years since the birth of the artist František Kupka and 900 years since the death of the chronicler Cosmas.

The subject of the new series of CZK 500 silver coins is famous means of transport. The obverse sides of the coins will feature such icons of Czech industry as the Škoda 498 steam locomotive, the Jawa 250 motorcycle and the Tatra 603 car at a frequency of one motif a year.

“However, the silver coin marking the establishment of Great Prague in 1922 will certainly also arouse interest. The coin – 1 kg in weight and 100 mm in diameter – is the first large diameter coin to be issued by the CNB,” said Benda.

This CZK 10,000 silver coin will also be unusual for its tribute to the capital city. “Prague tends to be systematically omitted from the cycles of gold coins to give space to other regions and sometimes less well-known monuments,” he added.

An example is the cycle of CZK 5,000 gold coins featuring ten selected municipal heritage sites. These will include Litoměřice, Hradec Králové, Kroměříž and Štramberk, for example.

An exceptional CZK 10,000 gold coin weighing 1 troy ounce will be issued in 2021. It will feature a motif of Princess Ludmila, the patroness of Bohemia, and will mark 1,100 years since her death.

In 2019, the CNB issued its first-ever commemorative banknote, bearing a portrait of Alois Rašín. The establishment of the Czechoslovak koruna will continue to be a subject of commemorative banknotes. The next note, to be issued in 2022, will feature Karel Engliš, the most important financier of the First Republic.

Commemorative coins have a long tradition in the Czech Republic. The first coins of this type were minted during the rule of the kings of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty and became widespread during the rule of Franz Joseph I. The Czechoslovak Republic continued in this tradition in 1923. Only since 1964, however, have commemorative coins have been issued every year without interruption – until 1989 by the state and since 1990 by the central bank.

You will find the schedule of issuance for 2021–2025 in the attachment to this press release. More details are available on the CNB website.

The presentation given at the press conference on the schedule of issuance, which contains the technical parameters of the coins and banknotes, can be found on the CNB website.

Markéta Fišerová
Director of the Communications Division and CNB Spokesperson

¹ Trade coins are not part of the system of legal tender and do not have a value denominated in a monetary unit.