Results of the Anonymous Contest for the Art Design of a Silver Collector Coin in Nominal Value of 20 Euro Protection of Nature and Landscape – National Park Veľká Fatra

Third prize and realization
Mgr. art. Roman Lugár

First prize
Mária Poldaufová

Third prize
Karol Ličko

In September 2008, Národná banka Slovenska announced an anonymous public contest for the art design of a silver collector coin in nominal value of 20 euro, themed “Protection of Nature and Landscape – National Park Veľká Fatra”. Sixteen authors submitted for the contest a total of seventeen artworks. The Committee for the Assessment of Art Designs of Slovak Coins evaluated them in December 2008.

The committee recommended for production the design by Mária Poldaufová who won the first prize in the contest. The committee appreciated the balance and the harmonious fusion of all components of her art design in terms of modeling, composition and depiction, as well as an optimum handling of script. The averse of the design portrays the golden eagle, a typical representative of the Veľká Fatra wildlife, while the reverse depicts a landscape supplemented by taxus baccata and cyclamen fatrense.

Although the expert committee put forward the above art design, the Governor of the NBS exercised his right under the contest conditions to decide differently from the committee recommendation and, on the basis of his authorization by the Bank Board of the NBS, passed for realization the art design by Mgr. art. Roman Lugár who was awarded the lowed third prize. For the averse, the author chose the motifs of some distinctive representatives of the National Park’s flora- the precious endemic cyclamen fatrense that does not grow anywhere else in the world, Clusius’ gentian and taxus baccata, while the reverse shows a golden eagle soaring over the Kráľova skala.

No second prize was awarded in the contest. Two third prizes were also given to designs created by Karol Ličko. In his first design he depicted the Eurasian lynx on the averse and taxus baccata on the reverse. Both the flora and the fauna are complemented with a landscape motif on both sides. The averse on the second design shows the most typical representative of the Veľká Fatra wildlife – the capercaillie – and the reverse pictures the precious plant cyclamen fatrense.