The Warsaw University of Technology is celebrating 100 years since it’s revival on 15 November 1915 and the National Bank of Poland has a couple of new coins to honour the occasion. Both head in new directions for the bank, with the gold incorporating a latent image and three-alloy construction, and the silver joining the favourite recent numismatic trend, dome-shaped coins.

The University is one of the premier technology institutes in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. Across the 19 faculties covering nearly all fields of science there’s a student body of over 36,000 with a teaching body of almost 2,500 people. Every ninth president among the top 500 corporations in Poland is a graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology, so clearly a successful organisation.

The silver design is the first half-ounce coin to be struck in the domed format, most prior releases being at or around the one-ounce mark. The reverse side depicts a representation of the glass ceiling of the universities main hall, while the obverse has a ‘fractal iterated function’ in the background upon which is struck a large Polish Eagle emblem. This and the gold will be available from the 29 January.

The gold coin carries similar design elements to the silver, with the obverse having the same ‘fractal iterated function’ in the background, but with a far smaller Polish Eagle in the foreground. The reverse side has patterns of geometric forms presenting ‘artistic visualisation of physical phenomena and mathematical forms’. In the lower half of the obverse is a square inscribed with a latent image. This is a simplified version of the lenticular process used in coins like the Perth Mints Transformers issues, whereby moving the coin from side to side shows a different image, in this case likely to just be a two-stage type.

The coins structure is quite unusual as well. The outer ring is struck in 90% gold combined with 6% silver and 4% copper. The upper half of the coins centre is 75% gold combined with 13% palladium and 12% silver, and the lower half of the centre is 90% gold with 10% copper. Despite appearances therefore, the coin is made solely of gold alloys, but unlike the silver coin, it’s flat in profile.