100 Korun Bohumír Šmeral

Bohumír Šmeral founded the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1921, making him a figure the post-1948 regime had obvious interest in commemorating. This coin was issued for the centenary of his birth. Šmeral had spent years in the pre-war Social Democratic movement before breaking left, and his political trajectory was precisely the kind the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic preferred to celebrate in silver.

The .500 fineness reflects the cost-cutting approach Czechoslovakia applied to its commemorative program through the late 1970s and into the 1980s — earlier issues in the series ran higher in silver content.