Establishment of the National Bank of Czechoslovakia

December 1926

Issue of the first NBC share certificates

Although the subscription of shares in the National Bank of Czechoslovakia took place in the autumn of 1925, shareholders did not receive their certificates until a year later, at the end of December 1926.

The Banking Office entrusted the design of the future bank of issue’s share certificates to the eminent Czech graphic artist Alois Mudruňka, who at that time was working on the design of the 20-koruna note featuring portraits of Milan Rastislav Štefánik and Alois Rašín. Mudruňka undertook the task with great enthusiasm and, in May 1925, presented the Banking Office management with a sketch of the certificate, including a detailed drawing of the figurative part of the design inspired by the work of Josef Mánes. After it was approved, he produced a complete study of the certificate, which was then commissioned for execution. In September, the guilloche security features were prepared, and in October the engraving design was completed, with the engraving work assigned to Karel Seizinger.

The central motif of the certificate depicts Saint George on horseback fighting a dragon, with a princess and the Romanesque rotunda of St. George on Mount Říp in the background. The scene is a modification of Josef Mánes’s Banner of the Říp Association, created in 1864 for the Jednota Říp cultural association in Roudnice nad Labem. The only difference between the image on the certificate and that on the banner is in the lower right corner, where the original coat of arms of Roudnice nad Labem was replaced by the lesser national coat of arms. The reason for choosing St. George as the motif for the bank’s share certificate is unknown, but a highly plausible hypothesis is that St. George symbolised the bank of issue combating inflation in the form of a dragon. The print underlying the text section of the certificate featured the greater coat of arms of the Czechoslovak Republic, accompanied by plant motifs and the abbreviation of the bank’s name (NBČ).

Production of the certificates was entrusted to Haase, a company that had long collaborated first with the Banking Office and later with the National Bank of Czechoslovakia on the printing of paper currency. Haase printed 51,376 certificates in six types, differentiated by the form of the share (individual, collective – standard, “Golden Treasure of the Republic” and state subscription) and by language (Czech and Slovak). The sheets also differed in colour – collective (cumulative) shares were printed in brown and individual shares in blue.

Table – Overview of types of 1926 NBC share certificates