Issuance of a CZK 2,500 commemorative gold coin “Heritage Site – Brewery at Pilsen” from the Industrial Heritage Sites Cycle

On 8 October 2008, the Czech National Bank is putting into circulation the sixth gold coin from its Industrial Heritage Sites cycle: “Heritage Site – Brewery at Pilsen”. The commemorative gold coin has a face value of CZK 2,500 and was designed by sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů.

A meeting of representatives of the Czech National Bank and invited representatives of local and national government and business representatives from the West Bohemia region will take place at the Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery on Wednesday 8 October 2008 to mark the issuance of this commemorative coin. CNB Governor Zdeněk Tůma and CNB Bank Board Member Robert Holman will give an economic presentation in the Congress Hall at the Visitor Centre at 10.30 a.m. This will be followed by a tour of the brewery at 11.15 a.m. and the official unveiling of the coin in the Great Hall at 12.25 p.m. A press conference will be held with CNB and Plzeňský Prazdroj representatives and the designer of the coin in the Technical Hall at 12.50 p.m.

The “Brewery at Pilsen” gold coin is a part of the “Industrial Heritage Sites” cycle. The entire cycle will comprise ten coins, and this coin, bearing a motif of the Brewery, is the sixth. The coins “Heritage Site – Elbe Sluice under Střekov Castle” and “Heritage Site – Wind Mill at Ruprechtov” are planned for issuance in 2009. The cycle will be completed in 2010 with the coins “Heritage Site – Hammer Mill at Dobřív” and “National Heritage Site – Michal Mine at Ostrava”.

More information on the commemorative gold coin:

The obverse side of the coin depicts a composition of stylised heraldic animals from the large national emblem of the Czech Republic. The Czech lion is in the middle, with the Moravian eagle on the right and the Silesian eagle on the left. Depicted below the composition of heraldic animals are brew kettles. The left-hand, upper and right-hand edge of the coin features the unclosed text of the name of the cycle: “KULTURNÍ PAMÁTKY TECHNICKÉHO DĚDICTVÍ”. The name of the state “ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA” is located between the composition of heraldic animals and the illustration of brew kettles. The bottom edge of the coin bears the denomination and abbreviated monetary unit “2500 Kč”. The mark of the Czech Mint is positioned in the upper right-hand corner of the illustration of brew kettles.

The reverse side of the coin depicts the Jubilee Gate of the brewery at Pilsen with the brewery premises behind. Located below the brewery gate is a row of beer barrels. The left-hand and right-hand edge of the coin features the unclosed inscription “PIVOVAR V PLZNI”, which is divided by the year of mintage “2008”. The initials of the designer of the coin, the sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů – the interlinked letters “FZ” – are situated at the right-hand edge of the coin.

The winning design of the coin was the result of an anonymous competition held at the Czech National Bank in October 2007. In all, 27 designers entered the competition, creating 31 designs. The plaster models were judged by the Commission for the Evaluation of Designs of Czech Money in the presence of the official adviser for the “Industrial Heritage Sites” cycle, Karel Zeithammer from the National Technical Museum in Prague. The Commission awarded first prize to the sculptor Zbyněk Fojtů and recommended that his design be implemented. In the Commission’s opinion, this design depicted a dominant feature of the brewery – the Jubilee Gate – and suitably complemented it with features depicting beer production technology. Second prize was awarded to a design by the sculptor Jiří Harcuba. No third prize was awarded. The CNB Bank Board agreed with the Commission’s decision and approved the implementation of the design. The plaster model was then delivered to the Czech Mint in Jablonec nad Nisou for realisation.

The “National Heritage Sites” cycle issued by the CNB in 2006–2010 aims to remind the public of an important part of the nation’s cultural heritage. In selecting the heritage sites featured in the cycle, emphasis was placed not only on the diversity of the heritage sites represented, but also on the representation of various Czech and Moravian regions. All the coins have a face value of CZK 2,500, a diameter of 22 mm and a weight of 7.78 g (1/4 of a troy ounce). The thickness of each coin depends on the height of its relief. The coins are minted from 999.9 purity gold in two quality versions differing in surface treatment and edge marking. The normal-quality coins have fields and reliefs of the same polish and milled edges. The proof-quality coins have highly polished fields, matt reliefs and plain edges. Each coin comes with a red postcard-sized catalogue card with a description of the coin and its relief.

The Czech National Bank sells its commemorative coins to private individuals through entities licensed to trade in numismatic material.

Further information and picture of coin

Pavlína Bolfová, CNB spokesperson