Results of the public competition for the design of a €100 gold collector coin featuring Bratislava coronations – 400th anniversary of the coronation of Ferdinand II

First prize and the design selected for the coin
Karol Ličko

Second prize
Ivan Řehák

Third prize
Mária Poldaufová

In July 2017 Národná banka Slovenska (NBS) announced a public competition for the design of a €100 gold collector coin featuring Bratislava coronations – 400th anniversary of the coronation of Ferdinand II. A total of nine designs by nine different designers were entered in the competition. In November 2017 the designs were evaluated anonymously by NBS’s Committee for the Assessment of Commemorative and Collector Coin Designs. The Committee was assisted in its task by two expert advisers: Matej Hanula, from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and Štefan Holčík, a historian.

At the Committee’s recommendation, the NBS Bank Board awarded a reduced first prize to a design by Karol Ličko and approved it as the design for the coin. The Committee acknowledged the artistic balance of the design, the representation of the theme, and the linkage of the obverse and reverse compositions, with the lettering on each side appearing between the edge of the field and an inner ornamental circle. The design was praised for its depiction of the coronation procession on the obverse and the portrait of King Ferdinand II on the reverse.

Second prize was awarded to Ivan Řehák. The Committee appreciated the obverse composition showing the figure of the sovereign alongside a period view of Bratislava, which successfully conveyed the historicity of the event. The reverse design was praised for its well-modelled portrait of Ferdinand II and for the way that the lettering around the edge overlaps the portrait in places.

Third prize was awarded to Mária Poldaufová, whose design included two alternative reverse sides, each depicting a portrait of the sovereign. The Committee commended the high standard of both portraits and their artistic rendering. It was also impressed by the choice of script used for the lettering around the edge of the field. But while acknowledging the design’s high professional level, the Committee did not consider its obverse motif to be quite apt (it showed a double-headed eagle and the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor).

An additional prize was awarded to Zbyněk Fojtů in recognition of the high quality of his design.