The Royal Kraków Mint celebrates a legend of the Wawel Dragon from the medieval history of its home city

Dating back to at least the 13th century, the legend of Smok Wawelski (the Wawel Dragon) tells of a giant dragon that terrorised the city of Kraków, known as a man-eater, but appeased with cattle provided by the city inhabitants. It was finally defeated, when the two sons of King Krak tricked the dragon into eating a cow carcass filled with sulphur, thus killing the beast.

The story doesn’t end there, as the younger son kills his elder brother, and then tries to blame the death on the dragon. His lie is uncovered, and he is banished. His sister, Princess Wanda, accedes to the throne instead. Like all the old legends, there are myriad variations on the story, some saying the dragon was killed by a shoemaker, another not mentioning the dragon at all. The story may have been based on one involving Alexander the Great, which is at least 600 years older, possibly much more.

Whatever the story, it’s inspiration for the Royal Kraków Mint to produce a coin celebrating it, and it represents the first issue in their new Popular Legends series of five coins. In a rare change, the coin eschews the use of antique finishing for a black ruthenium one. This is a striking finish in proof form, with a deep reflective look, and we reckon it will depict the interior of the dragon’s cave perfectly. The dragon, is highlighted in colour.

We do only have a pair of renders at the moment, but for a good example of how things change, have a look at the same producer’s brilliant De Doodle release. Our original look at that coin was just renders, but we later ran with actual coin images, and the difference was phenomenal, so we have high hopes here as well.

The obverse is particularly neat, featuring a map of the old city of Kraków, even down to the cave area where the dragon resided, and where it is depicted. We can’t tell from the render what level of relief is employed, but the idea is sound, and it’s so much nicer to see a good design on an obverse rather than just an effigy, or coat-of-arms.

As you would expect, the coin comes boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity and is available to order now, with shipping in late February. We may revisit this one when real world images become available.