Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Latu
| Issuer | Latvijas Banka |
|---|---|
| Year | 1934 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Latu |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central intaglio portrait vignette of Kārlis Ulmanis (1877–1942), Prime Minister and State President of Latvia, rendered with fine line engraving against an elaborate guilloche underprint. The denomination and issuing authority inscriptions are arranged in the surrounding field, with the bank name lettered across the upper portion. The overall design is executed in a restrained, formal style characteristic of De La Rue production of the period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in blue intaglio on a finely worked guilloche background, the reverse carries the Latvian state coat of arms at centre top, flanked by two large circular areas reserved for the watermark and framed by ornate scrollwork with mythological figures. The numeral 50 appears in each corner, the denomination PIECDESMIT LATU is set in bold lettering across the upper zone, and a rectangular anti-counterfeiting warning panel occupies the centre. The printer's imprint appears at the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Latvia's 50 Latu of 1934 was printed by Thomas De La Rue during a politically charged moment — Kārlis Ulmanis had just dissolved parliament and assumed dictatorial powers in May of that year. The note's production in London reflected a deliberate policy of the Latvijas Banka to use high-security foreign printers, insulating currency production from domestic instability.
Pick 20 is scarcer than its lower-denomination counterparts in the series, largely because 50 Latu represented a substantial sum for most Latvians in the mid-1930s. Notes of this value circulated infrequently, yet attrition through the Soviet occupation of 1940 — which invalidated and largely destroyed Latvian currency stocks — was severe.