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50 Korun

Issuer Státní banka Československá (State Bank of Czechoslovakia)
Year 1953
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Currency Koruna (1953-1992)
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Reverse description A panoramic vignette of the city of Banská Bystrica in Slovakia occupies the central field, rendered in blue intaglio with hills rising in the background. The national coat of arms of Czechoslovakia appears to the left, flanked by ornate guilloche borders, with bilingual legal tender text in Czech and Slovak inscribed along the lower margin.
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Variants P#85a - serial # prefix A, B Printer: Goznak, Moscow
P#85b - Other serial # prefixes than P-85a Printer: Tiskárna Bankovek, Prague
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The 1953 Czechoslovak currency reform was one of the most punitive monetary resets in postwar European history. Citizens were required to exchange old koruna for new at a rate of 50:1 for amounts above a minimal household allowance — effectively wiping out private savings accumulated under the previous system. This note entered circulation as part of that reform, issued by a banking apparatus that had been restructured entirely along Soviet lines following the 1948 communist takeover.

Státní tiskárna cenin, the state security printer in Prague, handled the entire series domestically — unusual given that Czechoslovakia had previously relied on foreign printers for prestige issues.