Catalog
20 Santimu
| Issuer | Latvia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1922 |
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| Thickness | 1.6 mm |
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| Obverse description | The Latvian coat of arms occupies the central field, depicting a quartered shield with a rising sun in the upper half and two rampant lions in the lower quarters, flanked on either side by flowing ribbon scrolls. Three five-pointed stars arc across the upper portion of the shield. The date is split to either side of the shield, with '19' at left and '22' at right. The legend LATVIJA curves along the lower portion of the shield within a stylized banner. The design is rendered in a clean, low-relief style engraved by Rihards Zariņš. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | 19 22 LATVIJA HUGUENIN |
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| Additional information |
Latvia's first coinage series, issued following independence from Russian imperial control, was struck entirely at the Huguenot-founded Le Locle mint in Switzerland — Latvia having no mint infrastructure of its own in the early 1920s. The 20 Santimu was part of that inaugural emission, a practical necessity for a government scrambling to establish a functioning monetary system while simultaneously fighting off Soviet and German Freikorps incursions on its eastern and western borders.
The Swiss contract covered Latvia's base-metal coinage needs through the mid-1920s, when the Latvian lats had stabilized sufficiently to attract longer-term monetary planning.