Smoebody dropped a wacky Darkside coin into the UNO thread on the Liteside...

lordmarcovan

"Cyclonus11" posted this recently.

Talk about the ultimate "wild card" coin!




(For those of you unfamiliar with the monster UNO thread, it works like this:



<< <i>If the last coin posted was a U.S. coin, you have to post a coin of the same date OR the same type (NOT just the same denomination).

If the last coin posted was a foreign coin, you have to post a coin of the same date OR from the same country (type or denomination do not matter in this case.)

...

Dual-dated coins like Bicentennial issues or some commemorative issues are "wild card coins". For example, if I post a "1776-1976" Bicentennial quarter, the next person must post a Washington quarter OR a 1976-dated coin OR a 1776 dated coin, since 1776 is also one of the dates on the coin, though not the date it was issued. >>





That Czech coin is more than just DUAL-dated!

The coin with the most dates on it I have seen so far was three or four (some of the Liteside commems, for example).

Until this one came along.

This one has to be the craziest thing anybody's played. Cool.

olmanjon

Beautiful coin--would love to have one of those babys in my collection!

lordmarcovan

It is pretty nice, actually.

In a weird sorta way.

What is the "152004" in the middle of the first side, though? (Which I suspect is the reverse).

The "2500" on the other side is the denomination, obviously. (In Koruna? I have a hard time reading that lettering.)

tbirde56

From the Standard Catalog of World Coins:
2500 Korun
40 millimeters
.999 gold (23.328 grams) and .999 silver (7.776g)
Date 1.5.2004 in center : Czech entry into teh EU
10,000 Proofs issued, $265 est. value 2008 ed.

lordmarcovan

OK, 2500 korun, as I suspected. But what's the "152004", or whatever that is?

Bailathacl

152004 is 1/5/2004, which is May 1, 2004 [eurostyle]. This is when the Czechs joined the EU.

TwoKopeiki

^^^
what he said

tbirde56

Sorry, guess I hid that bit of info in the middle of my previous msg.

cyclonus11

This isn't my coin. I thought about ordering it from the Czech mint, but decided against it. I did, however, save the pic just for use in the UNO thread. I didn't actually get to use it until now (I had that image for a couple of years).

Anyways, I decided to scour the world wide internets for brief snippets of Czech history coinciding with each date on that coin:

623 - A German tribal chief named Samo allied with the Czechs in 620, defeated the occupying Avars, and in 623, established a new Bohemian state.
863 - Slavonic Apostles Cyril and Methodius bring Christianity to the region, as well as some other foundations of European culture, such as a new type of writing.
995 - Unity of present day Bohemian territory under Czech control.
1212 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, issued the Golden Bull of Sicily, a decree that certified hereditary royal title to Otakar I of Bohemia and his successors and determined the rights and duties of the Bohemian monarchs.
1306 - Rudolph I of Hapsburg occupied Prague, claiming the Bohemian throne, opposing Henry of Carinthia. Rudolph attempted to squash the Czech nobles holding out for Henry, but fell ill of dysentery, leaving no children. The Czech nobles then restored Henry of Carinthia as King.
1348 - Charles University is founded in Prague. The Black Death rages across Europe.
1415 - Jan Hus, a religious reformist, travels to Constance to defend himself and the Czech positions in the church before the Council of Constance. Despite formal protection from the Emperor of Luxembourg, he is sentenced to be burned at the stake as a heretic. This outraged the Czechs, and began the rebellion against the Roman Catholics known as the Hussite Wars.
1526 - King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia drowns while fleeing the battlefield at Mohács ending his bloodline, and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria takes over. Bohemia becomes a constituent state of the Habsburg Monarchy.
1610 - An uprising calling for greater religious freedoms in Bohemia takes place, and these freedoms are granted; however, pushes for greater freedoms are squashed.
1848 - Czech-speaking majority in the areas of Bohemia and Moravia temporarily overthrow the governing Austrians and establish their own autonomous state. This state was quickly squashed, and all Czech government assemblies were destroyed.
1918 - State of Czechoslovakia is founded as one of the successor states of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I.
1938 - After annexation of Sudetenland by Germany, Czechoslovakia becomes a state with loosened connections between Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian parts.
1945 - Coalition government unites the area, and the Communist party gains a foothold in parliament. Carpathian Ruthenia cedes to the Soviet Union.
1948 - Communists officially seize power.
1968 - "Prague Spring": A brief period of liberalization of Czechoslovakia that began on January 5th 1968 when Alexander Dubcek came to power, and ended on August 21 of the same year when neighboring Communist Warsaw Pact allies invaded.
1989 - End of Communist rule.
1993 - Czechoslovakia splits into two autonomous nations: Czech Republic and Slovakia.
2004 - Czech Republic is admitted to the European Union.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>152004 is 1/5/2004, which is May 1, 2004 [eurostyle]. This is when the Czechs joined the EU. >>

Aha!

PS- Cyclonus- did you cobble all that history together from various pages? I would've done a copy-n'-paste, sure, but if you hunted all that down, bravo!