On Thursday the Bank of Latvia announce a new commemorative coin dedicated to Rūdolfs Blaumanis, a classic of the Latvian literature, the author of the famous works "Tālavas taurētājs" (The Buggler of Tālava), "Nāves ēnā" (In the Shadow of Death) and "Skroderdienas Silmačos" (Tailor Days at Silmači), in the year of his 150th anniversary. The 1 lats Rūdolfs Blaumanis commemorative coin designed by Aigars Ozoliņš and modelled by Ligita Franckeviča. It was struck by Regia Autonomǎ Monetǎria Statului (Romania) within the "European Silver Programme", a collector coin programme of the EU Member States.
The reverse features the portrait of Rūdolfs Blaumanis on the background of the titles of the writer's works, with the inscription Rūdolfs Blaumanis placed in the lower part of the coin.
On the obverse show a homestead surrounded by trees, nestling on a tree leaf. The inscriptions LATVIJAS REPUBLIKA, arranged in a semicircle, and 1 LATS are placed above and beneath it.
The collector coin "Rūdolfs Blaumanis" is legal tender in the Republic of Latvia. The maximum mintage of the coin is limited to 5 000. The coin will be on sale at the Bank of Latvia (the new Cashier's Offices at K. Valdemāra iela 1b in Riga) and such traditional points of coin sale as banks and souvenir and jewellery shops. The price of the coin at the Bank of Latvia's Cashier's Offices is 32.92 lats.
Rūdolfs Blaumanis' drama, prose and poetry rank among the masterpieces of the Latvian literature. They provide an impressive depiction of the Latvian country life, characters and way of thinking at the time when Latvians became aware of themselves as a nation and the foundation was laid for future statehood. Moreover, Blaumanis' works are not a mere historical recording of the national character back at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; many of the themes and problems related to it can be found in contemporary life as well. In his works the search for human harmony is centred around the ideal of family and native land, and the authors of the coin have tried to translate it in an artistic form of a coin.
Source: www.bank.lv
