Born into an artistic family on 20 September 1925, to a painter father, and a sculptor mother, Džemma Skulme inherited that talent, blossoming into an exceptional painter who helped define Latvian national identity. It was in the 1960s that she began to incorporate defiant symbolism into her work, during a time when Latvia was fully controlled by [...]
We don't cover as much of the Eastern European coin world as we used to, and that's going to change in 2023. Particularly in the Baltic States, there's a recent trend of using heavily stylised designs to represent traditional ideas, and they've had their fair share of awards for their efforts. The latest coin from the Latvian national bank, [...]
Latvia takes a rare delve into its prehistoric past with a Devonian tetrapod glow-in-the-dark silver coin It's unusual to see a prehistoric animal coin emanating from Eastern Europe, so we were pleasantly surprised to see this one turn up in todays Inbox. Latvia has a fine reputation for interesting contemporary design with its numismatic range and they've [...]
Latvia celebrates the ecology of our urban environments with its latest shaped silver coin One of the biggest crimes ever committed by man in his long symbiosis with this beautiful world haas been the callous disregard for the environment we need for our survival. Greed and arrogance has long taken precedence over common sense, but [...]
Latvia launches a hexagonal honeycomb coin to showcase the importance of bees and honey It was back in January 2017 that the Bank of Latvia launched a competition to create an innovative coin that would be released in 2018. Some 42 works were submitted for consideration and all were evaluated by the [...]
Latvia asks collectors to vote for its best collectors coin from the six issued in 2017 Every year the Bank of Latvia asks coin collectors to vote for their favourite Latvian precious metal coin and this year is no exception. This producer has always punched well above their weight and has issued some very interesting and [...]
Latvian proof silver coin celebrates its fairy tales for the third time, with The Old Mans Mitten Today, the Bank of Latvia has released the third in its popular Fairy Tales series of proof silver coins. After 'Five Cats' from 2015 and 'The Hedgehogs Coat' issued last year, this new coin celebrates [...]
Latvia celebrates its entrepreneurs with striking faceted silver coin All of the Baltic State mints have a track record of interesting and innovative coin designs. While the subject matter is often completely alien to the rest of the world, the sense of style imparted on their coins makes them [...]
Like the Lietuvos Bankas, the Bank of Lithuania, whose 2014 issues we covered a couple of days ago, the Latvijas Banka (Bank of Latvia) has also managed to acquire a considerable portfolio of award nominations for its relatively small release schedule. In 2014 they were nominated three times for the Krause Coin of the Year Awards (COTY), and [...]
