The Czech National Bank began an issue of 200,000 commemorative 1,000-korun bank notes on Feb. 8, marking the 30th anniversary of the Czech Republic having its own currency.

The notes are actually from the current Series 2008, with historian and politician František Palacký, but an overprint on the face notes the anniversary.

When Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved and split into the Czech Republic, or Czechia, and Slovakia on Dec. 31, 1992, the first notes used in the Czech Republic were the then-current Czechoslovakian notes with a special validation stamp pasted on the face. The new note has a printed copy of that stamp showing the number 1,000. It will also have the logo of the 30th anniversary of the Czech National Bank, the letters CNB, 30, and the dates 1993 and 2023. The design is by painter and author Jan Solpera, who also created the font used on Czech bank notes.

The note was made available for face value in Czech currency, equal to $45.65, at cash offices of the national bank with a limit of up to five notes per person. It was not available via online ordering.

It’s the second Czech bank note with an overprint. The first was in 1989, a 100-korun note for the centennial of the separation of Czechoslovakia from the Austro-Hungarian monetary system.

IDNES, a Czech news portal, advised of an exhibition to be held in Prague for the anniversary of the splitting of the Czechoslovak korun into two different versions for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It quoted Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura as saying, “There was no state that divorced so easily. I don’t even remember an example of such an easy split of the currency.”

And while the Czech korun still exits, the Slovakian version lasted only 16 years, until the euro was adopted in its place. Stanjura says, per IDNES, that it is important for Czechia to have its own monetary policy.

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