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5 Korun
| Issuer | Tuzex |
|---|---|
| Year | 1984 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | STC (Státní tiskárna cenin) |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by a large central guilloche rosette rendered in interlocking green and gold lathe-work, set against a horizontal band of repeating 'TUZEX' microtext in blue-green. At the centre of the rosette, a teal cartouche of irregular form bears the 'Tuzex' logotype in white serif lettering. |
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| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Complex multicolour guilloche rosette and underprint patterns; horizontal band of repeated 'TUZEX' microtext on reverse |
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| Comments |
Tuzex was Czechoslovakia's state-run hard currency retail network, and its bony — the vouchers it issued in exchange for Western currency — functioned as a parallel monetary system that quietly acknowledged the koruna's inconvertibility. Foreigners, diplomats, and Czechoslovaks who received remittances from abroad exchanged their dollars or deutschmarks for bony, which could then be spent at Tuzex shops on imported goods entirely unavailable through normal retail channels.
The 1984 series was printed by STC, the same Prague facility responsible for official state banknotes and postage stamps, which explains the relatively sophisticated security specification for what was technically a retail voucher. Possession of bony by ordinary Czechoslovaks without a legitimate foreign income source was legally ambiguous — tolerated in practice but occasionally used as a pretext for prosecution.