50 Litų Jonas Basanavičius

Jonas Basanavičius spent much of his adult life in Bulgaria practicing medicine, editing his landmark ethnographic journal Aušra from abroad, and watching Lithuanian national consciousness slowly coalesce around his work — only returning permanently to Vilnius in 1905, decades after he had become the movement's symbolic father. He chaired the Great Seimas of Vilnius that year, the first major Lithuanian political assembly since the 18th century.

This 2001 issue marked the 150th anniversary of his birth.