200 Korún Pavol Jozef Šafárik

Pavol Jozef Šafárik was an ethnic Slovak who spent most of his productive career in Serbian Novi Sad and later Prague, which made him an awkward but useful symbol for the newly independent Slovak state. His 1837 work Slovanské starožitnosti — a foundational study of Slavic antiquities — was produced entirely outside Slovak borders, yet it became one of the intellectual cornerstones of 19th-century Slovak national consciousness. The 1995 issue marks the bicentennial of his birth.