An agricultural snapshot

Czechoslovakia

(Map of 1918-1938 and 1945-1992 Czechoslovakia. From Wikipedia).

Czechoslovakia as a country existed from the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, until the “Velvet revolution” of 1989 which led to the overthrow of the communist regime. Ultimately, the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993, marked the culmination of the revolutionary spirit that had transformed the nation.

But the country has a very long history before then. Around the 4th century BC, the present-day Czech Republic was populated by Celts. They were the first ethnic group to arrive in the area, the Celtic Boii tribe giving the country its Latin name – Boiohaemum (Bohemia). Later, they were pushed out by the German tribes (Marcomanni, Quidi). Slavic tribes settled in the territory of Bohemia and Moravia.

During the last two-thirds of the 9th century the Great Moravian Empire was created. The Great Moravian Empire substantially influenced the development of culture and religion among the Eastern and Southern Slavs. In 863, the Byzantine Christian missionaries Constantin and Methodius came to Moravia to introduce the Slavic liturgy there. However, very soon the influence of the Roman Catholic Church expanded, proving to be decisive in the course of the history of Bohemia and Moravia.

(Vranov nad Dyjí in South Moravia on River Dyje (Thaya), Czech Republic. from tripsite / Flickr:Ebsels).

During the reign of the Premyslid dynasty, the Czech state gradually grew in strength and succeeded in preserving its actual sovereignty despite formal vassal ties to the Holy Roman Empire. The death of Prince Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia, was in 935. (He is the titular figure in the Christmas carol, “Good King Wenceslas“).

The kingdom of Bohemia reached its peak of power and prestige during the reign of Charles IV (1346-1378), the second Luxembourg on the throne of Bohemia: in 1344 the Prague Archbishopric was founded, in 1348 Charles University, the first university north of the Alps, was founded, and Charles IV was crowned the Roman Emperor in Rome in 1355. The Hussite Revolution was caused by economic and political crisis both within the country, and in wider Europe at the time. The Hussite movement was inspired by the ideas of Master Jan Hus, a preacher who was burnt at the stake in 1415 in Constance. Despite his death, his supporters successfully continued in their efforts to reform the Church. This split the power and prosperity of the church in the country between the Catholic Church and the Hussite church. During this period, the nobility and towns were able to profit. The Czech nation and Czech culture came to the forefront of social life.

In the 1500s, the Habsburg’s of Austria succeeded to the throne of Bohemia. This brought the re-introduction of the Roman Catholic faith, centralization and the construction of a multi-national empire. The Habsburgs included the Crownlands of Bohemia in their monarchy, and they remained a part of the Habsburg empire until 1918.

Czech nationalism had been building in the 1800s. Initially primarily aimed at reviving Czech language and culture, but with the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Czechoslovakia was born, founding an independent state of Czechs and Slovaks. The Czechoslovak Republic became one of the ten most developed countries of the world. A period of twenty years of democracy and prosperity was ended by the aggression of Hitler’s Germany.

Obverse

The obverse of the coin features a Czech lion walking left on two legs, bearing a Slovak shield and the date below.

The first truly documented lion as a symbol of the ruling dynasty of Přemysl is documented from as late as 1213 on an equestrian seal of the Moravian Margrave Vladislav Jindřich (Henry).

With the independent Republic of Czechoslovakia coming into existence in October 1918, the need arose to have a new sovereign national emblem designed to represent the new constitutional situation but also the newly established state entity’s continuity with the history of the Czech Lands, and the lion was adopted.

On the lion’s chest is a Slovak shield. The oldest known document about this emblem is the image of the crown flag on the seal of the city Nitra from 13th century. This was plain and featured a patriarchal cross (a Christian cross with a second, smaller cross bar above the main horizontal beam). In the Vienna picture chronicle is the image of the crown flag with the double cross on the three hills from the 14^th century.

The patriarchal or double-cross came into to using as early as the 7th century in Byzantium. A simple Latin cross is explained as a cross of suffering. Double Cross is explained as a cross and resurrection victory. In the 9th century, the territory of present-day Slovakia was part of Great Moravia. Byzantium had a strong interest in the Central European country as evidenced by the sending of missionaries Mission St. Constantine – Cyril and Method.

The three hills first emerged in the 14th century, the coat of arms of the Hungarian King Wenceslaus – Ladislaus (1301-1305) and the 16th century symbolizes three hills of the northern mountains. There is the highest Tatra in the middle, Matra is left, Fatra is right.

Reverse

The reverse features a sheaf with a sickle and a linden sprig with the denomination in numerals to the left.

The main grains grown in the Czech Republic are wheat and barley, followed by corn, rye, and oats. While the coin could theoretically depict just about any of them, my guess is barley, due to the “awns” (The bristles at the top of the stalks).

From a purely aesthetically numismatic point of view, I was disappointed to count those stalks at the bottom and find only SEVENTEEN, not the “20” the value of the coin seems to promise. The five heads each contain eight “awns”, so 40 in total.

The tool is a “sickle”. A sickle is a curved, hand-held agricultural tool typically used for harvesting cereal crops or cutting grass for hay. The inside of the curve is the cutting edge, and is serrated. The farmhand swings the blade against the base of the crop, cutting through the stems with a sawing action. The sickle was superseded in the nineteenth century by the scythe which was more comfortable and by mechanised combine-harvesters and tractor machinery.

And just because I wasn’t sure of the difference initially: a scythe is a large, two-handed tool with a long pole and blade for mowing wide fields. Sickles have been used since the bronze age. The level of concentration and mechanisation of agricultural production in the Czech lands was among the highest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the leadup to WWI. Hand tools such as the sickle would still have been known and used by smaller farms, so the symbols on this coin would not have been unknown when it was circulating.

What is your favourite agricultural theme on a coin. This one is a favourite of mine, though I do also quite like this East German coin. Do you have one I haven’t written up? Please do let me know!