Catalog
| Issuer | Státní banka Československá (State Bank of Czechoslovakia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1953 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of the equestrian statue of Jan Žižka on Vítkov Hill in Prague, rendered in intaglio; Žižka (c. 1360–1424) was the celebrated Hussite military commander and Czech national hero. The denomination numeral and issuing authority inscriptions frame the central design against a guilloche underprint. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | TÁBOR BANKOVÝ SÚ KRYTÉ ZLATOM A OSTATNÝMI AKTÍVAMI ŠTÁTNEJ BANKY ČESKOSLOVENSKEJ. BANKOVKY JSOU KRYTY ZLATEM A OSTATNÍMI AKTIVY STÁTNÍ BANKY ČESKOSLOVENSKÉ. |
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| Comments |
The 1953 Czechoslovak currency reform was one of the most punishing monetary transformations in postwar Eastern Europe. Announced without warning on 30 May 1953, the reform exchanged old koruny for new at rates that varied depending on amount held — small savings converted at 5:1, larger holdings at 50:1, effectively wiping out accumulated private wealth overnight. This note entered circulation through that reform, not as a replacement issue in any ordinary sense, but as an instrument of deliberate economic leveling under the newly consolidated communist state.
Státní tiskárna cenin, the state security printing works in Prague, handled the full series domestically — unusual for a Soviet-aligned state in this period, when satellite countries more commonly relied on Soviet presses for sensitive currency work.